


It Means Flame

by EphemeralNight



Series: Forever After Earth Multiverse [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lyrical Nanoha, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, RWBY, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/F, Gen, Magical Girls, Mind Sex, Moemura, Ori, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-20 18:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1520249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EphemeralNight/pseuds/EphemeralNight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Forever After Earth sidestory. On the planet MidChilda, shy war-orphan Homura Akemi meets a most wonderful girl. But, when the Ori cross dimensions to continue their crusade, Madoka Kaname takes up a fallen mage's Device and puts her life on the line to protect her home. Then Samantha Carter shows up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Means Flame

 

**It Means Flame**

A pointer stick smacked into the palm of Ms. Saotome's hand with the righteous indignation of the unjustly spurned. "The correct way to fry and egg is sunnyside up or down? Come on, Mr. Nakazawa, I don't have all day!"

The boy in question flinched back as the pointer whipped towards his face. "Uh... you can fry it either way... can't you?"

"Yes, precisely. You can fry it either way. Therefore it goes without saying that you should never judge woman's beauty by the way she fries her eggs!" Ms. Saotome exclaimed as her much abused pointer finally snapped clean in half. "Remember, girls, do not associate with men who refuse to eat eggs that have been fried sunnyside down!"

"I guess it didn't work out," Sayaka Miki whispered as an aside to her best friend Madoka Kaname.

Madoka winced softly. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"And you boys better make sure you don't grow up to be men who complain about how the darn eggs are cooked, understand?" their teacher ranted.

"Well, then!" Ms. Saotome continued. "Now that's out of the way, we have a new student joining us today. Come on in, Miss Akemi!"

"Hey, shouldn't that have come first?" Sayaka muttered.

Madoka leaned against her desk to get a better view as a dark-haired figure came around the outside of the classroom, stumbling slightly when she noticed the whole class was watching her through the acrylic wall panels.

The Akemi girl made it through the door and shyly offered Ms. Saotome her admission note. She had her raven-black hair in two long braids, and as she faced the class she almost seemed to cower behind the cute red-framed glasses she was wearing.

"Alright, why don't you introduce yourself to your new classmates?" Ms. Saotome suggested.

"Uh um, m... my name is Homura Akemi," she said, fidgeting with her hands. "Pl... pleased to meet you."

As Madoka watched the new girl stutter through an introduction, she got the funniest feeling, a bit like butterflies combined with a completely inappropriate and absurd urge to hug her and pet her and tell her everything's going to be alright.

"Miss Akemi has lost some time to a health issue," Ms. Saotome told the class. "Since it's been a while since she's been in school, she may be a bit behind on a few things. So I want all of you to help her out where you can, okay?"

Ms. Saotome caught Madoka's eye and discreetly made their previously agreed upon hand signal, indicating that she wanted Madoka to open a telepathic link.

 _Yes, Ms. Saotome?_  Madoka inquired.

The teacher glanced at the new girl.  _Miss Akemi's arranged to see the school healer during break period, Madoka. As the class Aide, you'll be sure to make sure Miss Akemi gets there okay, understand?_

Madoka sat up a little straighter and smiled.  _Of course, Ms. Saotome._

* * *

"So, where was your last school?"

"Were you in any clubs? Ooh, do you know any magic?"

"Your hair is so long! That must take a lot of time to braid every morning."

Homura quailed under the onslaught of enthusiastic curiosity."Uh... um... I..."

"Excuse me gals," a new bright and friendly voice cut in. "Homura? Hi. I'm the Healer's Aide for our class. You need to go to the Healer's Office, right?"

Homura  _was_  supposed to check in every day during her first week back at school, to make sure there weren't any complications or relapses in her recovery. She nodded hesitantly.

"Then I'll take you there," the pink-haired girl offered. "Sorry everyone, but Homura here has an appointment to keep."

There was a chorus of, "Awwwh."

Homura got up and followed the Healer's Aide into the hall. As the transparent door closed behind them, the girl turned to Homura and offered her hand with a peaceful smile.

"I'm Madoka, by the way," she said. "Sorry about all that. They don't mean to be so overwhelming. They're just excited because we don't get a lot of transfers here."

After a moment's hesitation, Homura shook her hand and offered a small, nervous smile in return. "It's... okay. Thank you."

"You don't have to be so nervous, you know," Madoka told her. "We're a friendly class, even if some of us can get a bit excitable."

"It's... it's not that," Homura murmured, shyly keeping her eyes on the floor in front of her feet as they walked. "I don't... I'm not used to being called by my first name so much. I mean... the healers didn't... and it's, it's such a weird name, so other..."

Madoka made a surprised noise. "It's not weird!" She looked up with a dreamy expression. "It means 'flame' so it's like you're meant to flare up passionately! I think it sounds cool."

Homura felt her face heating at Madoka's whimsical praise, but then her shoulders slumped. For all of Madoka's earnestness, Homura just wasn't like that.

"I guess I don't live up to my name," Homura sighed.

Madoka spun around and stopped in front of her. Homura blinked, looking up and realizing they were standing in the middle of a glass-enclosed bridge between two parts of the school. The view of the Mitakihara skyline was actually kind of spectacular, and the pale arc of MidChilda's smaller moon hung in the clear blue sky. Homura met Madoka's rather striking golden eyes and found herself stunned by the sheer...  _encouragement_ , she was faced with.

"But that's such a waste!" Madoka exclaimed. "If you've got a name that great, you should work to be just as great yourself!"

Madoka's cheer was infectious, and Homura couldn't resist smiling in half-hearted agreement.

* * *

Of course, that didn't last long. Homura had been bedridden for months. Every lesson just drove it home how far behind she was. Five minutes into Athletics, and she was nearly ready to throw up. In history and science she'd kept up with the reading, but was utterly lost during the class activities. Maths was better, but she already felt so miserable that she was the last one to finish the work.

The next day wasn't any better. At least when the class drilled on conjuring light, she was actually the only one in the class to manifest a complete MidChildan Circle. The glowing purple-black image hovered faintly over her hand, but it was barely bright enough to be visible, let alone actually function. It fizzled out in mere seconds, and Homura hung her head.

"Agh! I don't get why we have to learn this," one boy complained, a lopsided loop of blazing pale yellow light wavering in front of him. "I mean, anybody with enough power to cast real spells is just going to get a Device anyway, right? This is lame."

That comment started an argument that Homura stayed out of. Her parents had always told her that a mage who was helpless without their Device wasn't much of a mage, but a brash blue-haired girl seemed to be making that point well enough on her own.

When school ended for the day, Homura set out to make the short but exhausting walk back to her empty apartment, feeling absolutely dejected. It was hopeless. She was never going to stop being a useless weakling. She could never live up to her name. She was worthless...

"Homura?"

So wrapped up in her moping, Homura didn't see Madoka until she almost ran into her. Madoka stood just outside the campus gates, smiling as if she was genuinely pleased to run into Homura. Homura's heart clenched with a sudden desperation to keep from tarnishing Madoka's brightness with her own misery.

"Oh! H-h-hello, Madoka," Homura greeted.

Madoka giggled lightly, clasping her hands in front of her. "I saw you looking kind of down, so I thought, maybe I could walk you home, Homura."

Homura was honestly taken aback, but managed to stammer out, "Oh... okay? Y-you don't have to..."

Madoka fell into step beside her. "I don't have anyone to walk with today, either. Hitomi's mom is picking her up and Sayaka is staying late for Strike Arts. So come on!"

Homura helplessly returned Madoka's smile. "Alright."

As they strolled along the sidewalk together, Madoka did most of the talking. She told Homura more about her friends.

Sayaka Miki, the blue-haired girl Homura remembered seeing, apparently dreamed of joining the TSAB despite her rather lackluster magical ability. Madoka's other friend, Hitomi Shizuki, was the green-haired head of their class, and according to Madoka, she was being groomed to be an architect like her mother. Madoka joked about Sayaka's boyfriend, a musician named Kyosuke, getting all dreamy over Sayaka's pretensions of being an action hero.

Something about the whimsical way Madoka shared these anecdotes just made Homura smile. During that short walk, Madoka probably managed to drag more smiles out of Homura than she'd had in the past month combined.

Inevitably, they arrived at Homura's apartment building.

"Ehhh? You live here, Homura?" Madoka asked, sounding confused. "Isn't this building for studio singles?"

Homura nodded, staring at the ground. "Y-yes. I live on my own."

"Oh! Well, um, that's... very mature of you, Homura," Madoka tried weakly.

"It's okay," Homura murmured. "My parents are both... they were Killed In Action. My mother was from AnteChilda, so, when, when the Ori War started, we went back to that dimension and they were with the rest of the TSAB combat mages who, who fought in the Battle of New Aln."

The Battle of New Aln. It was one of the most horrific losses in modern TSAB history. Homura had worried for her parents, who believed her safe at home, but after the Ori starships annihilated the TSAB response fleet, they were able to push through all the way to AnteChilda and land troops. Homura had been there during the first orbital strikes, and she'd nearly died choking on the dust of fallen buildings. Dozens of broken bones, and she'd needed to have both her lungs completely regrown. She hadn't even been conscious for the evacuation of civilians to MidChilda.

Fortunately, the Ori were pushed back before they could capture any of the Dimensional Links.

Homura glanced up through the top of her glasses to see Madoka's eyes shining, and the next thing she knew, Madoka had thrown her arms around Homura. Madoka was hugging her. Madoka was hugging her, and why was her face getting hot...

"That's so sad," Madoka whispered.

Homura smiled softly. "I miss them, but I've had time to come to terms with it."

Madoka pulled away and nodded.

After Madoka left, Homura rode the elevator up to her floor, lost in thoughts of the other girl.

* * *

For the rest of the week, Madoka continued treating Homura as if she were someone worth spending time around. Homura was starting to get this warm wriggly feeling in her chest every time Madoka smiled at her, or touched her.

Madoka's friends weren't nearly as welcoming, but they didn't seem to mind her.

Homura didn't understand why Madoka was going so far out of her way to include her, at first, but after spending more time listening to her, Homura got the impression that that was just how Madoka was.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to come over for dinner?" Madoka asked.

"I'd like to," Homura admitted shyly. "I just don't think I'm up to walking that far."

Athletics had been particularly bad that day, and Homura was feeling even more like a cripple than she normally did. She hated it more than usual, too, since it was forcing her to refuse something Madoka wanted. A cold knot settled in her gut and her eyes started to burn, as she -

Madoka slipped under her arm and helped to support her weight, giving Homura her best comforting smile. "My mom's off work tomorrow. What if I got her to come drive us?"

Homura swallowed the lump that had risen in her throat. "I don't want to put anyone out of their way..."

"Don't worry about it," Madoka assured her as they reached Homura's building. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Homura nodded shyly.

* * *

As Madoka stepped out into the bustling foot-traffic of a busier street, she smiled and let the mood of the crowd wash over. Faint telepathic probes brushed over the whole of the street, not enough to impinge on anyone's privacy or to draw the notice of any trained mages that might be in the vicinity, but sufficient for her to drink in the kaleidoscopic mood of the people around her.

Madoka considered herself fairly average in most ways, but when it came to telepathic skills, the only word that fit was  _savant_. She could establish a standard communication link before she could walk, and had mastered every non-classified skill by the time she started school. It made Madoka happy that her greatest talent revolved around the purest form of communication, bridging the distance between people.

Her skills were more or less an open secret. Since detecting when someone was trying to get into your mind was the  _first_  step in learning the standard communication link, Madoka's talent was regarded as far less threatening than it might have been had she been born on a less magically-advanced world than MidChilda, even by those who didn't know her personally.

Meandering her way home with a faint smile on her face, not really watching where she was going because she could  _feel_  everyone around her, Madoka bumped into someone.

_\- empty - cold - disgust - smite the heathens - divine wrath will flow from these veins - **hallowed are the Ori**  -_

With a gasp, Madoka fell to the ground. The fairly nondescript man she'd bumped into glanced down at her before continuing on his way, and Madoka burned his face into her memory with a determination born of gibbering panic.

The man was gone by the time Madoka picked herself up, and she didn't know what to do. She'd seen the vids from AnteChilda, but the Ori were supposed to be safely contained in that other dimension. How did that man get here? If the Ori could be here, what was going to happen to her home? Her family? Her friends?

Madoka screamed.

Around her, the milling pedestrians gasped and stumbled back as Madoka's body exploded with a shining pink light bright enough to temporarily blind those closest to her. And every single mind she could touch for miles in every direction was suddenly filled with an image of the Ori Zealot's face and the same glimpse into his thoughts Madoka had gotten.

Madoka fell to her knees, dizzy from the mental effort.

Her world was filled with screams and panic and blaring car horns.

* * *

Homura staggered under the sudden mental intrusion, ice crawling down her spine as she comprehended it. She didn't know what was happening or why she'd been given this warning, although based on the distant sounds of a city in chaos she wasn't the only one to receive it.

Going from window to window, Homura peered through the curtains to see if she could see what was going on.

* * *

Captain Mami Tomoe streaked across the sky over Mitakihara in her gold and white Barrier Jacket. Her squad raced across rooftops behind her, but unfortunately, Mami was the only Air Mage in the city and her backup was lagging because they couldn't fly.

The local TSAB office had gone into a frenzy in the wake of the...  _monstrously_  powerful telepathic warning. The source of the warning had been back traced thanks to the distinctive disturbances in the city's surveillance grid.

Mami braked hard as she reached the relevant city block. Hovering in place, Mami pointed Galvan Soul out in front of her as a gold Circle flared into being under her feet. At the moment, the Intelligent Device was in the shape of a simple black scepter, topped with a golden crystal rose.

AREA SEARCH, her Device announced in feminine tones that managed to be musical and mechanical at the same time.

Three small orbs of gold light came into being around Galvan Soul, then raced down to begin a spiraling search pattern. Fortunately the streets were mostly empty as people had fled the area. Once the critical threat was dealt with, they were going to need to search the crashed cars and broken storefronts for injured civilians. Mami also wanted to talk to whoever had sent the warning about being more careful in the future. Somewhere down there was a civilian who could cause untold chaos and destruction if they ever wanted to.

 _Sergeant, please deploy the Ground Mages in a paired perimeter,_  Mami ordered when she caught sight of a red blur in the distance.

 _You got it, Caps!_  Sergeant Kyoko Sakura replied.

After a painfully long wait, her search spell alerted Mami to a facial match. The man was walking down the center of an empty street. Mami shifted her grip on her Device and willed it to change shape.

ARCHERFORM, Galvan Soul announced as it dissolved its conjured structure and reformed as an elegant black longbow with a golden handle.

 _Target sighted,_  Mami sent.  _All forces, converge on these coordinates._

Mami dove off the edge of her Circle, taking flight as it dissolved behind her. She wove between buildings and swooped down to alight on the pavement a cautious distance in front of the suspect.

A small Circle formed in front of Mami's longbow-shaped Device like a targeting reticle LUX SEEKER.

A glowing golden bowstring and arrow formed between Mami's fingers as she took aim. "Halt! You will identify yourself and submit to questioning, on suspicion of being an enemy combatant! Comply or force will be used!"

With a sinister smile, the Ori Zealot drew a flaming shortsword from under his coat. Mami drew and released, sending an arrow made of enchanted photons screaming towards the enemy.

He slashed with the sword, and Mami's attack exploded, somehow leaving the man unharmed. Mami immediately drew on the bowstring of her still-active spell and fired two more arrows in quick succession.

Those attacks were also blocked with the sword, but Mami had expected that. With his attention focused on blocking, hopefully he wouldn't notice Kyoko plummeting towards him from behind. Kyoko leaped from the roof of a skyscraper...

The Ori Zealot thrust his sword out, and roared, "All who do not follow the Path of Origin must be destroyed! May my blood herald the Fires of Celestis!"

And to Mami's shock, he brought his sword down and opened his own throat with a single efficient slash. Burning blood flowed from his body in a torrent. As the Ori Zealot collapsed, his flaming blood moved on its own, inscribing an alien ritual circle.

The moment the alien Circle formed, it exploded in a column of fire. A column of fire Kyoko had flung herself right into.

Kyoko's scream of pain tore at Mami's heart as the Scarlet Sarge hurtled into the flames. Kyoko's charred form emerged, and Mami flew up and caught her. The redhead's Barrier Jacket had taken the brunt of it and she was still alive, but the burns were bad enough she might still die of shock.

Mami flew up to Kyoko's second. "Sergeant Sakura needs a medievac, now!"

* * *

Madoka was despairing of her own stupidity. She couldn't believe she'd actually talked herself into  _following_  the evil Ori worshiper. Hiding under an abandoned car, Madoka gasped in awe when the golden mage descended to confront the man, then in dismay when he shrugged off her attacks.

The column of fire ripped through the air far to close to her hiding spot. Madoka shrieked and covered her head, waiting for the roaring heat to pass.

Once the storm of flame died down, Madoka peeked out, and what she saw made her eyes go wide in horror. Ori soldiers. Dozens of them, if not hundreds, all wielding blasting staves. And leading them, three Priors.  _Three_  Priors.

Shooting spells of various colors blasted down from rooftops and out of alleyways, but one of the Priors merely raised his glowing staff and the magical attacks exploded harmlessly against a shimmering shell of force.

The second Prior made a grasping motion, and a girl in a dark green Barrier Jacket came tumbling out of an alley. Madoka wasn't sure what happened next, except that there was a green flash, a series of explosions, and then a half-dozen soldiers were unmoving on the ground while the mage in green lunged at one of the Priors, her glove Device covered by a blazing energy blade.

The attack was stopped cold by telekinetic might, and with a vicious shattering the mage's Device fractured catastrophically, and her Barrier Jacket dissolved. Another Prior grabbed the formerly green-clad mage as she stumbled back. His hand gripped the back of her head, and she only had time for a gurgling wail of agony before her head burst apart in a shower of blood and brain-bits.

From above there was a scream. "Tiro Finale!"

* * *

Mami watched in horror as Private Roberta was reduced to a headless corpse. As a Circle formed under her feet, Mami pulled back on Galvan Soul's bowstring as targeting and containment rings sketched themselves in the light of her magic, forming a barrel as big as she was.

TIRO FINALE, her faithful Device intoned.

Mami released. "Tiro Finale!"

The colossal destructive bolt of magically co-opted photons blasted down towards the invaders, and Mami smirked in bitter satisfaction when she saw all three Priors raise their staves together and visibly strain to repel her ultimate attack spell.

Mami shot upwards while the enemy was busy shaking off her attack.

 _Alright, listen up!_  Mami ordered.  _Backup is on the way. Our job is to contain the threat in as small an area as possible, and buy time until our reinforcements get here. We know they've figured out the trick that getting out of a Dimensional Shift is as easy as hitting the boundary really hard, so we can't rely on academy tactics here. Here's what we'll do..._

* * *

The hope that had swelled in Madoka's chest popped like a balloon once the dust cleared. The Ori army was unharmed, and with a wave of a Prior's glowing staff, even the soldiers that the green-clad mage had taken down were back on their feet.

More shots and blasts flashed in from every possible direction.

Two of the Priors had placed themselves on either side of the soldiers to deflect attacks, while the third seemed to retreat among the soldiers and sit down in a meditative pose. Madoka didn't know what he was doing, but she doubted it was good.

Then destruction in various colors rained from the rooftops, arcing to strike the invaders from directly above. Madoka covered her face, but the soft impact of a pair of elegant boots made her peek. The mage in gold and white was standing just a few feet from the car Madoka was hiding under, the bottom edge of a vertical Circle visible beyond the mage's legs.

RIBBON LOCK, a mechanically melodic voice declared.

Hundreds of glowing golden bands snaked along the ground, slipping under the force shield that was busy blocking the attack from above. Soldiers cried out and fell as they found themselves tied together by their feet and legs.

There was a pulse of... something, from the Priors. Madoka didn't know what, but she could  _feel_  it. In response, every soldier who could get a shot aimed as one and fired their blasting staves. The mage staggered as her Circle shattered under a sudden telekinetic assault and the volleyed storm of plasma slammed into her Barrier Jacket.

The multi-colored barrage from above faded out, but Madoka gasped at the blinding storm of magic that somehow remained in a roiling ball above the army. She was pretty sure she heard the mage gasp as well.

The captured attacks suddenly blasted out in a torrent, and Madoka heard a scream. She pressed herself to the pavement as the redirected blast rocked the car Madoka was hiding under just by its passing.

The mage in gold and white slammed into the side of the building and fell to the sidewalk in a shower of rubble, her Barrier Jacket in tatters. She struggled to rise as she coughed, flecking the sidewalk with blood. The mage collapsed again.

Heedless of the danger, Madoka crawled out from under the car to... she didn't know what she could do, but she had to do  _something_. She gasped as she recognized the mage's face. Madoka had seen her on the news. This was Captain Mami Tomoe.

On the other side of the now somewhat flayed car, the remaining mages were launching desperate attacks with everything they had, but the Priors were just too strong. Their power broke through the mage's defenses one by one.

Madoka gently helped the fallen mage sit up. Captain Tomoe eyes widened when the locked onto Madoka.

"Run," Captain Tomoe gasped. "Run... away..."

"But this is my fault!" Madoka choked. "I panicked. And now this is happening because of me!"

Captain Tomoe coughed again, spattering blood on Madoka's school uniform. "You... you sent..."

A scream and a sickeningly wet tearing sound made them both look over, even though they couldn't see much, hidden behind the car. The sounds of blasting staves had joined the other sounds of battle, but individual shots just spent themselves ineffectively against the mages' Barrier Jackets.

"You..." Captain Tomoe coughed. "You did... good... Get away! Save... yourself..."

Madoka shook her head furiously.

COMPATIBLE USER DETECTED, her Intelligent Device interrupted.

Mami Tomoe froze, and then her face twisted with guilt. With an irridescent shimmer, her Barrier Jacket and Device vanished, leaving her in an immaculate TSAB uniform. She held out her hand, and there on her palm was a gleaming golden rose petal made of crystal.

"If you... want to... help..." She coughed up more blood. "Take it... destroy... the Priors..."

Madoka stared, and accepted the Intelligent Device with shaking hands. Mami stopped breathing.

With tears in her eyes, Madoka looked over her shoulder. The battle was winding down but it wasn't over yet. Could she really made a difference? Captain Tomoe seemed to think so. If she could really help protect her world from the Ori... Madoka's hand closed in determination.

GREETINGS, NEW USER, the Device said. THIS DEVICE IS GALVAN SOUL OMNIA. PLEASE CONFIRM REGISTRATION.

"I am Madoka Kaname, and I want you to help me fight the Ori. Please!"

CONFIRMED. ADAPTING TO DETECTED AFFINITY. EMPATHIC SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE. ADAPTING BARRIER JACKET PATTERNS. OPTIMIZING SPELL TEMPLATES. STANDBY. READY.

Madoka dragged Mami Tomoe's body into the dubious shelter of the closest doorstep, then she stood and faced the battle.

"Galvan Soul," Madoka said. "Set up!"

* * *

Their mission was simple. In the name of the gods they would cross the boundary between realities and bring Origin to the heart of the heretics' civilization. Then, in their righteous crusade, they would call out, may their prayer be heard by their Ori brethren in  _this_  universe.

The heretics must be made to understand that even escaping to a different universe will not protect them from the wrath of the gods, for the Ori are hallowed and eternal.

The heretics did battle with their blasphemous, stolen powers, but with the might of the gods behind them, the Priors could not fail.

"I have located the Stargate," the sitting Prior informed his brethren.

Working together, the three Priors wrapped a shell of telekinetically hardened air around their forces, and prepared to carry their holy spearhead force away. They were on their way to -

Then there was only light. And it was pink.


	2. Heart Is An Awesome Power

**Heart Is An Awesome Power**

Flashes of multicolored light, explosions that rattled the windows. Homura Akemi stood rooted to the spot in dismay as the magical battle raged a couple of streets over.

A shimmering bubble, like a colorless force field in the shape of a disc, rose into view above the rooftops. Homura could see them inside it. Soldiers and Priors of the Ori.

"No," Homura whispered. "Not again."

A sudden light would have blinded Homura if her glasses hadn't instantly adapted by darkening. It was like a pink sun had ignited down on the battlefield. The glare faded, and Homura strained her eyes to see what it was. The blazing pink star resolved itself into a floating mage in a pink white and red Barrier Jacket, holding a white longbow with a golden rose at one end.

This new mage was too far away to see her face clearly, but... Homura felt it in the depths of her being, that this figure of power was the same wonderful girl who'd reached out to Homura when she had nothing.

"Madoka..."

The staves of the Priors glowed, and a crackle of white lightning swept off the force bubble and arced towards Madoka. She flung up her hands in panic, but the lightning smashed into an invisible shield. Madoka recovered remarkably quickly, flinging out one hand and exploding her own shield. The resulting force blast slammed into the Priors' force field, rocking it back and knocking all the soldiers off their feet.

Madoka whirled and streaked off, strafing around the Priors while they were off balance, and landing on a pink Circle that appeared above them.

* * *

Madoka landed hard on her Circle, heart hammering. The strangest thing was, while she  _was_  terrified, at the same time something in her felt like she'd finally come home. She would fight this battle, and she would do it with all her heart, because the Ori could not be reasoned with.

Taking aim with Galvan Soul, Madoka barely noticed that her hands were perfectly steady. Her mind flashed through the simple variables as she selected the most powerful spell she knew Galvan Soul had, and the Device ran through the heavy calculations. Pink rings traced themselves in the air, forming a huge barrel.

PSION FINALE, Galvan Soul announced.

Madoka released the bowstring, and a storm of pink light ripped through the air and smashed down on the Priors' telekinetic force field, driving it into the ground and shattering it as the enemies inside reeled under the psychic backlash of Madoka's attack.

As the dust cleared, every soldier was writhing on the ground clutching his head, and even the Priors looked shaken. But Madoka wasn't done.

HEART SEEKER, Galvan Soul's mechanically melodic voice intoned.

Madoka hurled herself sideways through the air as she fired arrow after arrow of magical light at the Priors. The arrows homed in on the Priors' telepathic signature, but only one of the three was struck down.

Of the two remaining, one Prior went to revive their fallen brother, while the third lifted off the ground and sped towards her, his staff glowing harshly. Madoka fired another two arrows, but the Prior blocked the attacks with his staff.

Galvan Soul acted without prompting, and changed into a long white staff with bands of pink light at either end and a golden jewel in the center, declaring, ENHANCERFORM.

Madoka's eyes widened with a gasp as the Prior closed with her. There was no time to get a spell off, and she was terrible at Strike Arts. Madoka dropped like a stone and cut sideways again, blocking a blast of white lightning as Galvan Soul guided her own unpracticed telekinesis in deflecting the energy.

The Prior swept his staff in a circle, tracing a ring of fire, inside of which the air darkened.

Madoka had seen dozens of news and documentary interviews with mages who fought on AnteChilda. She knew that mages who pitted their personal power against the Priors, rather than using spells, were every one of them overwhelmed in seconds. But she just didn't have time to use a spell, so she fell back on what came the most naturally to her.

The full force of Madoka's telepathic might slammed into the Prior's mind, obliterating whatever he'd been trying to do and staggering him in the air. To her shock, the Prior's counter didn't overwhelm her. She was as strong as he was!

With fierce determination, Madoka tore into the Prior's mind and began ripping it apart. He fell out of the air, plummeting to the street below. Madoka watched the Prior's body hit the ground with a bloody crunch, her chest tight with sorrow that she'd used her gift to kill.

GUARD, Galvan Soul declared.

And the telekinetic power of the other two Priors smashed into Madoka like the fist of an angry god. Her Barrier Jacket tore as the attack broke through Galvan Soul's automated defense, and she screamed in pain as her skin rippled and tore.

Madoka was blasted away fast enough to leave a trail of fire and a sonic boom, but the damage to both herself and her Barrier Jacket was superficial, so she wasn't incinerated.

By the time she got her flight under control, she was halfway into space and had several mild burns, but she wasn't about to give up. Galvan Soul drew an overlay onto her vision, highlighting the location she needed to return to, and Madoka dove, willing herself through the air.

"Galvan Soul, do you have a flight spell?" Madoka asked.

Up until now, she'd just been using her own telekinetic power, stabilized and augmented by Galvan Soul, to levitate and move around. But now that just wasn't fast enough. She needed to get back before the Priors got away and did whatever they were on MidChilda to do.

RIBBON WING, Galvan Soul replied as a Circle appeared for a brief moment on Madoka's back.

Pink ribbons of light sprouted from the shoulders of Madoka's Barrier Jacket, taking shape like wings, and Madoka went from willing herself through the air to piloting the spell like a fighter jet.

The air cracked around her as she accelerated passed the speed of sound.

* * *

Homura sagged to the floor in numb horror, her mind replaying it over and over. Madoka, ripped apart, her body hurled away with such speed that it left a fiery contrail in the sky.

The two remaining Priors restored the telekinetic shield around themselves and their soldiers, lifting off the ground and accelerating upwards. The shimmering force field streaked over the top of Homura's apartment building, generating a sonic boom.

Homura gasped out in pain as her windows blew in, barely getting her arms up in time to protect her face as shards of glass cut into her skin and the concussion slammed into her.

Things were mostly a blur after that.

Homura's head swam as she bled from a dozen cuts, her ears ringing and her vision going in and out. At some point the pain fell away, or maybe she fell away from the pain, and a shining figure descended to her, all soothing sakura-colored light and a presence Homura wanted to wrap herself up in.

Glad beyond words to be seeing this ghost of Madoka, Homura looked up into the golden eyes of her dying vision, such a wonderously beautiful sight, of such a wonderful and beautiful person. Ma... do... ka...

* * *

Blushing faintly, Madoka pointed the short white scepter topped by a gold crystal rose that was Galvan Soul at the unconscious Homura.

She'd been too late to catch the Priors, but their escape had shattered windows across the whole block. It turned out Homura's apartment was on the top floor of her building, and she'd been right at the window. Her search spell had found a dozen or so injured, but Homura was by far the worst off, so Madoka had rushed to help her friend.

Madoka had barely hesitated in entering Homura's mind so she could numb injured girl's pain, but even though Homura had been nearly delirious, Madoka had felt the shy girl's thoughts and emotions just before she passed out. Homura probably hadn't even realized it herself, but that was... attraction, admiration, gratitude, and an almost desperate reverence.

Hence the blushing.

ACTIVE SCAN, the Device intoned as a pink Circle appeared under the injured girl.

The shards of glass highlighted themselves in Madoka's sight, visible even inside Homura's body, and she looked carefully to make sure nothing was sticking into any organs or large blood vessels. Thankfully, the damage seemed to be superficial.

With the strength enhancements built into her Barrier Jacket, Madoka lifted Homura in her arms easily. She flew out the shattered window and down to where the two remaining TSAB mages were gathering the wounded and the dead. The dark-haired woman with a sword and an unusually plain red and white-trimmed Barrier Jacket that showed off her legs was Corporal Mano, her Device helpfully informed her, and the white-haired boy in a formally styled white and black-trimmed Barrier Jacket currently casting a healing spell on one of the wounded was Private Shiina.

"Keep it up, Private," Corporal Mano encouraged as she set down another body. "Emergency Services will be here in ten minutes."

"Excuse me!" Madoka called as she landed, doing her best not to jostle Homura.

The two mages looked up at her, taking in her tattered Barrier Jacket with its singed ruffled skirt. Corporal Mano frowned.

"Hey, that was you who broke the Prior's shield, right? Who're you anyway?" she asked. "You're not with the Mitakihara division."

"Yes! I'm Madoka. I, um, was..." Madoka shook her head. "That's not important right now! My friend is hurt! That shockwave hurt a bunch of people, and there's two more in that building over there who're hurt too bad to get to a hospital on their own!"

Private Shiina didn't waste words. He was there before Madoka finished speaking, a stretcher of colorless hard light forming under Homura. As she handed Homura off to the grey mage, Corporal Mano's eyes suddenly went wide.

"Hey!" the Corporal exclaimed, pointing accusingly. "That's Galvan Soul!"

Madoka flinched, but before she could try to explain, the Device itself interrupted.

MAMI TOMOE'S LAST WISHES WERE FOR MADOKA KANAME TO WIELD THIS DEVICE, Galvan Soul said.

Corporal Mano's face crumpled in grief. She looked away at nothing, no, at Mami's body. Madoka tore herself away, flying off to help the other badly injured bystanders, and bring them back so Private Shiina could stabilize them.

* * *

Homura woke slowly, feeling and awareness seeping in around the edges of her oblivion.

_Vmeeem... Vmeeem... Vmeeem..._

The beeping of medical equipment and the familiar scents and sounds of a hospital room finally roused her. Homura blinked her eyes open as she became aware of a warm, softly snoring presence weighing her left arm down. Seeing a familiar pink blur, Homura gasped softly and fumbled around for her glasses.

The slightly scuffed red frames were waiting for her on a bedside table, but an unexpected stiffness in her arm made Homura miss and knock her glasses to the floor. The clatter roused the Madoka-shaped blur, who gasped happily. Seeing what had happened, Madoka snatched the glasses with telekinesis and gently placed them on Homura's face for her.

Madoka's smiling face came into focus.

"You're... alive?" Homura whispered.

"I'm alive," Madoka said. "And so are you."

Madoka leaned over and hugged her. Homura, who was in fact well-read and self-aware enough to recognize that she'd begun to fall for the other girl, simply closed her eyes and thoroughly enjoyed the contact.

After a while, Madoka finally let go and slid back into her chair. Homura blinked, finally noticing something that really should have been obvious at once.

"You're wearing a Barrier Jacket," Homura pointed out numbly.

Madoka glanced down at her white and pink bodice and ornate ruffled skirt, with an air of shame. "Yeah... Captain Tomoe was dying and gave me her Device, since I had a matching affinity and a lot more power than I thought, but I failed."

Homura reached for Madoka's hand. "You tried. And you survived."

"Miss Akemi's right, you know," a woman's voice interrupted, the door to Homura's room swinging open to reveal an admiral's uniform and a whole lot of mint-green hair. "Your first magical combat, with no training, against foes of that caliber. You did astoundingly well, Miss Kaname."

Homura watched as Madoka's eyes got very big. "Admiral Lindy!"

Lindy Harlaown chuckled. "Ah, you've seen that movie, I take it. You know, I'm still getting used to being recognized so often. It was such a relief when Vita stopped sending angry letters to the costume designers..."

After the somewhat redundant introductions were dealt with, the Admiral revealed why she was there.

"I'm actually here to visit you, Miss Akemi," Lindy said. "Your parents served under my command for a brief time, but I got to know them well enough to consider them friends. When I saw your name on the civilian casualty list, I decided I ought to meet you."

"Oh," Homura said. "Um, thanks?"

Lindy smiled at the two girls. "And I bring good news! It would seem, Miss Akemi, that your parents' veteran benefits were never passed on to you. The TSAB owed you the best of any medical care you might have needed, and I am appalled by the mixup that left you to fend for yourself on that front."

"It's... not that bad," Homura demurred. "The free treatments kept me alive, and they told me I'd fully recover eventually, once my new lungs finished growing."

"Even so, the Akemis died defending our civilization and it is the TSAB's duty to look after their daughter in their stead," Lindy asserted.

Homura looked down in pleased embarrassment, and Madoka squeezed her hand. Lindy took the opportunity to study Madoka.

"On another note," Lindy began, "I've also been assigned to your case, Miss Kaname, so it's lucky for me that you two already know each other. The TSAB would like to offer you a Temporary Enforcer position."

"Eh? Me?" Madoka gasped.

"You've got an incredible amount of talent, Miss Kaname, and based on how you did against the Priors, I would guess that you could pass the S-trials right now," Lindy told her. "If Galvan Soul there is going to stay with you, I think it would be best if you received some basic training and lent your power to the cause, don't you?"

Madoka looked down at her Device. For all that she'd had it less than a day, she felt such a strong connection with Galvan Soul that the thought of giving it up was like giving up an arm. And besides that, Madoka had  _accepted_  the mission Mami Tomoe had given her with her dying breath. When she thought about it, Madoka didn't want to walk away. The Ori were a threat to everyone and everything she cared about, and she had the power to make a difference.

"When do you need my answer?" Madoka inquired.

"By the end of the week, at the latest," Lindy replied. "Speaking of which, Homura... May I call you Homura?"

Momentarily thrown, Homura nodded.

Lindy smiled. "I've arranged for you to be treated at an advanced neuromuscular regeneration clinic this weekend. By next week you ought to be in tip-top shape."

"Oh," Homura said, shutting her eyes against the sudden blurring of tears.

Madoka hugged her again. "That's wonderful, Homura!"

"Yes," Homura agreed wholeheartedly, as she did her best not to start crying.

"There is one more thing," Lindy told the two girls once they separated, pulling a small black octahedral crystal out of her pocket.

Homura's breath caught. "Is... is that?"

"Your father's Intelligent Device," Lindy confirmed. "We recovered it months ago, but no one in our ranks has a compatible affinity, so it has gone unused. I finally convinced my superiors that Skjoldur should be yours."

Homura took the Device with slightly shaking hands, and looked up at Lindy uncertainly. "But... shouldn't... shouldn't Skjoldur go to someone who can do more than use it as a glorified wheelchair?"

Skjoldur flashed purple with the light of Homura's magic. NEGATIVE, SIR.

Homura started to protest, but stopped herself and looked down with a soft little smile. Lindy Harlaown stood up and straightened her uniform as Madoka gave Homura a curious look.

"You have a rare affinity, Homura?" Madoka asked.

Homura nodded shyly. "Time. I have an affinity for Time."

"Wow! That's amazing," Madoka opined.

"Well, I have admiral stuff to do," Lindy said. "Miss Kaname, Galvan Soul has my contact information, and Homura, Skjoldur has your appointment details. Bye now!"

The door swung shut behind her. Homura and Madoka shared a look.

"I guess... I guess you won't be having me over for dinner after all," Homura said weakly.

Madoka shook her head furiously and gave Homura a reassuring smile. "Of course I am! In fact, my mom's on her way here right now. When she found out that you live alone, she even insisted that you stay over with us."

"Well, if she insists..." Homura blushed, entirely too pleased that Madoka sounded pleased about the proposed arrangement.

Homura completely missed Madoka's brief, knowing smile.


	3. One Thing Led To Another

**One Thing Led to Another**

Nanoha stumbled into the small apartment she shared with Fate, exhausted but smiling. In today's training, she'd surpassed her previous best, from before the Gadget Drone Incident, so she was in a very good mood.

"Fate-chan! I'm home!" Nanoha called.

After a moment of silence, Fate's voice replied from the kitchen. "In here, Nanoha."

Nanoha nearly bounced, as much as she could when her limbs felt like noodles, into the kitchen, halting in her tracks when she saw who was sitting with Fate at the modest dining table. "Lindy-san!"

Fate's adoptive mother smiled in greeting. "Hello Nanoha. I'm glad to see you looking hale and hardy again."

After catching up with her former subordinate, and making Nanoha twitch a few times at how much sugar she put in her tea, Lindy got around to her official reason for visiting.

"I've got good news for you," Lindy informed Nanoha, while Fate smiled with quiet pride. "You've been accepted into the Aerial Tactical Instructor Corps. Congratulations,  _First Lieutenant_  Takamachi."

"Eh? Really?" Nanoha exclaimed excitedly. "Thank you so much, Lindy-san!"

Lindy shook her head. "Don't thank me. You've earned it, Nanoha."

In her excitement, Nanoha hugged Fate, and the darkly-dressed blonde girl's proud smile was joined by a faint blush.

Lindy pulled out a data chit and set in on the table. Raising Heart binged from where it hung as a necklace, in the form of a red crystal orb, and a moment later it projected a screen in midair over the table. One corner was taken up by a photo of a pink-haired girl who looked about Nanoha's age, maybe a year younger. Next to that was a list of her orders, and under that were details about the girl.

"Madoka Kaname?" Nanoha asked.

"Have you watched the news today?" Lindy asked, but Nanoha shook her head. "There was an incident in Mitakihara. Ori insurgents from the Anteverse somehow snuck through one of the Dimensional Links on AnteChilda and somehow opened a way into the Midverse. You should have the details in there."

Nanoha sent a mental command to Raising Heart, and the incident report popped up on the holographic screen. Nanoha read about the attack, the casualties, and the shockingly powerful telepathic warning.

"There was some debate over this, but in the end it was agreed that Miss Kaname would be assigned to you, as a trial run of your teaching abilities," Lindy explained. "She fought three Priors and survived, with no previous experience." Lindy smiled. "Reminds me of you, a little."

"When do I meet her?" Nanoha asked.

"Next week," Lindy told her. "In the mean time, I'd like to borrow the both of you for my investigation. Fate's already agreed."

Nanoha nodded without hesitation. "Of course, Lindy-san."

"Good," Lindy said, standing. "I'll see you both bright and early tomorrow morning at headquarters."

Lindy paused to give Fate a hug, which Fate carefully returned. "Until then, Mother."

"Good night, you two," Lindy called as she let herself out.

Wordlessly, Fate poured a new cup and set it in front of Nanoha. As Nanoha leaned over the holographic screen intently, Fate slid her hands onto Nanoha's shoulders and started massaging.

"Mou, that feels good, Fate-chan," Nanoha murmured, sinking into more of a relaxed slump as she continued to read.

* * *

As far as Barrier Jackets went, the design Homura finally settled on was rather understated. It seemed disrespectful, somehow, to flaunt her dad's Intelligent Device when she hadn't ever fought for the sake of another. There was also that she'd be wearing it to school for the next week until her regeneration appointment, and she was dreading the fuss her classmates would make.

Homura was clear to be discharged from the hospital, and Madoka would be coming back with her mom to pick Homura up in less than an hour.

Gingerly, Homura slid off the hospital bed and shuffled over to the mirror in the corner. Her braids had been taken out at some point, and she looked very frail where her formerly-lacerated limbs poked out of the hospital gown. The small black octahedron that was Skjoldur rested on her palm. She remembered seeing it in her dad's hands many times, and now it was hers.

"Release," Homura murmured.

RELIQUARY MODE, Skjoldur complied.

With a strong purple glow, the small black crystal vanished, sheathing Homura's left arm in a conjuration matrix. Small shards of light burst away, revealing a small but ornate bronze shield inset with a black crystal diamond.

Homura held Skjoldur close to her body as she lightly traced the familiar shape with her other hand. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Homura pulled off her glasses and brushed the sting of tears from her eyes.

Homura pushed her glasses into Skjoldur's sealing dimension, smiling slightly as she watched space warp between the bronze shield and the arm it was strapped to. One of Skjoldur's most useful features was its ability to access the items it had dimensionally displaced, individually.

Another more common benefit of having an Intelligent Device, was that Homura only had to concentrate on the the look she wanted for her Barrier Jacket, and Skjoldur would extrapolate the details. It only took a moment, and it didn't matter that Homura knew nothing about tailoring.

READY, SIR, Skjoldur reported.

"Set up," Homura ordered.

For a split second, Homura's blurry vision went purple as a conjuration matrix engulfed her from head to toe. Then the matrix shattered and Homura found herself looking at her reflection with sharper vision than even her glasses allowed her.

A simple black hairband restrained her long flowing hair. A black, skin-tight, full body leotard with a repeating diamond pattern down the sides of her arms and legs, blending seamlessly into flexible boots. On top of that, a silvery grey skirt, and on top of that, a pristine white coat with tails and a grey collar.

It looked good on her, but the visible parts of a Barrier Jacket were arguably the least important part. Homura hopped in place a couple of times, twirling around as she marveled at the sense of strength.

Once she had indulged herself a little, Homura reached into Skjoldur and pulled out the hospital gown she had been wearing. She tossed it on the bed and settled into a chair to wait.

"Skjoldur, Standby," Homura ordered.

The bronze shield glowed and melted, reforming into a simple fingerless black glove with a black crystal diamond on the back of her palm.

* * *

When Madoka showed up, she was back in plainclothes, and Galvan Soul had taken the form of a small brooch which she'd pinned to her collar. A purple-haired woman in a business suit who had to be Madoka's mom followed her into Homura's room.

Homura dispelled the holographic screen that displayed her appointment details, and hurried to stand.

"Homura," Madoka greeted with her usual warm sincerity. "Mom, this is Homura Akemi. Homura, this is my mom, Junko."

"Uh, nice to meet you," Homura stammered.

Junko grinned rakishly. "Likewise. I'm glad I finally get to meet the girl my Madoka's been talking about so much. So, you all set to get out of here?"

Trying not to be obvious about the way her heart leaped, Homura nodded. "Yes, um..."

"We're stopping by Homura's apartment first, right Mom?" Madoka asked. "So she can get her stuff?"

"That's the plan," Junko confirmed.

Feeling somewhat overwhelmed as she was swept up in the whirlwind that was Madoka's mother, Homura followed the two of them down to an expensive-looking red sports-car. She and Madoka shared the back seat for the short drive over to the damaged apartment building.

When they got there, Homura released Skjoldur again and started packing her belongings into the shield. Bereft of the need to carry anything, Junko looked around at the wrecked apartment and all the broken glass with a frown.

"This place is hardly fit for habitation," Junko said, shaking her head. "Listen, Homura? I want you to know, we have plenty of room and you're welcome to stay with us on a more permanent basis."

Madoka nodded emphatically.

"I don't... um, thank you," Homura mumbled shyly. "I'll... I'll tell the manager I'm moving out?"

After a second pass to get the rest of her things into Skjoldur, Homura dismissed the Device back into the shape of a simple fingerless glove and let Madoka and her mom usher her back down to the car.

Madoka shared the back seat with her again, and if Madoka sat a little closer than she really needed to, Homura certainly wasn't going to complain.

The house they arrived at was a grand boxy thing of glass and concrete, surrounded by trees and flower beds. Madoka led Homura inside and introduced her to the rest of the Kaname family.

Madoka's dad, Tomohisa, was a gently old-fashioned househusband who welcomed Homura to their home, and the final member was Madoka's little brother, a toddler called Tatsuya.

Homura wasn't sure how Madoka managed it, but when they sat down to dinner, somehow, she managed to make Homura feel like she belonged.

* * *

Nanoha yawned, bathwater lapping around her neck as she soaked in Fate's arms. Her head lolled on Fate's shoulder, her hair fanning out in the water, as she hovered on the edge of sleep.

"Nanoha," Fate chided gently, her breath caressing Nanoha's ear. "You're going to fall asleep in the bath again."

"Mmhm," Nanoha agreed softly.

Nanoha could feel Fate's chest jerk against her back in a silent snicker as Fate turned her face into Nanoha's hair in fond resignation.

Nanoha giggled sleepily. "You've gotten a lot squishier since we started doing this."

Fate blushed. Nanoha didn't open her eyes to see, but she could tell anyway. Fate always got embarrassed whenever Nanoha commented on Fate's obvious physical beauty. Still, it was true. It was quite apparent by this point that Fate was going to be the better endowed of the two of them.

The shared baths were a habit they'd developed during Nanoha's recovery. Fate had needed to help Nanoha with even the most basic things, when Nanoha had first come home from the hospital. That hadn't lasted long, fortunately, but they still never got around to breaking the habit, and Nanoha didn't think either of them would want to give up the skinship any time soon.

"We've grown up a bit. When did that happen?" Fate wondered in a low murmur. "I guess I am turning out to be... um, busty."

Mostly asleep and not even thinking twice about it, Nanoha picked up Fate's hands and pressed them against her own budding breasts. "More than me, anyway. See?"

Fate went still, as Nanoha's hands drifted off of Fate's. Nanoha, for her part, was asleep before Fate could react.

* * *

Some minutes later, Fate blushed furiously and forced herself to stop molesting Nanoha in her sleep. Her hands throbbed as she reluctantly pulled them away from Nanoha's chest, and she sighed.

Twisting to the side, Fate slid one arm under Nanoha's knees and the other around her back. Lifting herself and Nanoha out of the water with telekinesis, Fate sent a mental command to Bardiche, which was sitting on the countertop next to Raising Heart, in the form of a beveled yellow crystal triangle.

An electric yellow Circle formed over Fate's head like a halo. Fate had an affinity for lightning, so when she designed a spell to get rid of water, it had some potentially hazardous side effects. It worked by causing electrolysis, and thus had to avoid igniting all the free hydrogen.

It worked as intended, because Fate was very competent.

Once they were dry, Fate carried the sleeping Nanoha into the bedroom and pulled the covers down with telekinesis. Setting Nanoha's head on the pillow, Fate indulged in the opportunity to admire Nanoha's naked body. With how often Nanoha ended up falling asleep during their nightly baths, pajamas had fallen by the wayside and the two of them wound up going to bed naked more often than not.

Her hands still throbbed with the memory of Nanoha's soft handfuls and perky little nubs, and for the thousanth time, Fate contemplated asking Nanoha if they could... do more.  _Be_  more. But, the thing was, Fate didn't want their relationship to change. They already lived like they were married, and Fate cherished that. She honestly didn't care about making it official. The one time Fate had brought the subject up, obliquely, Nanoha had cheerfully declared herself to be married to her work. Fate was content with that.

Fate longed for the day she and Nanoha would make love properly, but for now, it was enough to have the next best thing.

With a smile of fond resignation, Fate climbed into bed with Nanoha and pulled the blankets up to cover them. Nanoha cuddled up to her without waking, and Fate wriggled until she was in a good position to, er, relieve some tension without disturbing Nanoha's sleep.

* * *

Nanoha stirred to the sounds of Fate's soft breathless moans and gentle squirming in her embrace. Nanoha almost raised her head, before she realized what Fate was doing and pretended to still be asleep.

Nanoha didn't mind, but Fate always got really embarrassed when her activity woke Nanoha up, so Nanoha did her best not to interrupt by revealing that she was awake. With a bond of trust as complete as the one they shared, it would be silly for Nanoha to object to Fate taking care of her needs in their own bed, but Fate had her quirks.

A soft gasp, and Nanoha felt Fate shudder as she finished.

In the following stillness, Nanoha noticed a prickling warmth in her own body, centered on a sweltering flush between her legs. Nanoha sighed. She figured it was like how yawns were contagious. Whenever she witnessed Fate doing it, her own body wanted to follow suit.

To the familiar background noise of Fate's soft snores, Nanoha reached down to take care of things.

* * *

The next morning, Nanoha woke to the unpleasant but familiar experience of Arf's adorable orange chibi wolf form using her skull as a trampoline. "Up up! Time to get up sleepyheads! You don't want to be late for your promotion!"

* * *

Homura sat hip to hip with Madoka as they shared the delicious lunch Madoka's dad had packed for them. Hitomi was regaling them with some story about her weekend, but Homura was having a hard time paying attention to anything other than Madoka.

"Gals! Gals!" Sayaka came in sprinting, interrupting Hitomi. "Guess what?"

"Oh, there you are Sayaka!" Madoka greeted.

"I got in!" Sayaka exclaimed, posing dramatically. "You're looking at TSAB Cadet Miki! Look, they even upgraded Shining Edge!"

With a flash of cerulean light, Sayaka's uniform was replaced by a Barrier Jacket in white and blue. Shining Edge settled in her hand, taking the shape of an ornate cutlass. Sayaka's Device had been an off-the-shelf model, barely more than a glorified cellphone and pocket calculator. Not any more, apparently.

SHINING EDGE, ONLINE, the Device droned.

"Oh!" Madoka exclaimed. "That's great, Sayaka! You're amazing!"

Homura gave Madoka a  _look_. Madoka noticed and blushed.

Hitomi studied Sayaka's new Barrier Jacket. "Sayaka, how late did you stay up designing that?"

Sayaka lowered Shining Edge sheepishly. "Eh heh... anybody up for coffee?"

One dispelled Barrier Jacket, a trip to the coffee stand, and a confession by Madoka later...

"Yo... you... you're gonna be an  _Enforcer_!" Sayaka ranted. "You fought Priors! You  _beat_  Priors! You have an actual Intelligent Device! I can't compete with that! I barely made D-rank!" Sayaka's head slammed down on the table.

"Temporary! Temporary! And only if I pass the Contract Mage Exam after I finish training," Madoka said, flailing a little as she tried to calm down her blue-haired friend.

"You're not competing with Madoka," Hitomi pointed out. "You'll be on completely different tracks, right?"

Sayaka picked herself up. "But I'm supposed to be the dashing hero in this group," she whined.

"I think you're plenty dashing, Sayaka," Madoka assured her with a smile. "Has Kyosuke seen your Barrier Jacket yet?"

Sayaka perked up. "No. I should go find him. He worries when I miss class..."

Homura was silently glad that Sayaka hadn't noticed that her own clothes were actually a Barrier Jacket. It probably said something bad about her, but she thoroughly enjoyed seeing Madoka steal Sayaka's thunder without even trying. Or maybe it just said something really good about Madoka.

* * *

The helicopter set down and Nanoha hopped out onto the roof of the Altseim Repository and Research Center with Fate at her side. Nanoha straightened her brand new white-with-blue-shoulders-and-trim Instructor Corps uniform and new rank sigil with pride. Beside her, Fate was owning her silver-trimmed black Enforcer uniform, as usual.

The building was a broad sturdy rectangle, with several smaller outbuildings connected by wide concrete paths that curved through a sprawling lawn dotted with sparse trees. On one side, the lawn ended at a cliff, overlooking an untamed forest valley. On the other side, the building itself had a big jagged hole torn through the wall, where the Ori worshipers had busted in.

A pair of mages in Barrier Jackets were waiting to meet them on the roof. One was a woman all in white, a red-lined white coat and dress combo that matched her snowy hair and lavender-blue eyes. The other looked like she was their age, clad in a black corset and ruffled skirt under a flowing blood-red cloak with red streaks in her short black hair, and her silver eyes lit up when she saw them.

"Welcome to the Repository," the white one greeted. "I am Huntress Weiss, with Security, and this is my partner, Ruby. Your colleagues are - "

Suddenly in Fate's personal space. "Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh! You're  _Fate_! You're my totally awesomest scythe-wielding hero of all time!" Ruby squeed. "Can I have your autograph?"

Fate blinked.

Weiss facepalmed.

Nanoha snickered into the back of her hand. "Looks like you have a fan, Fate-chan."

Ruby fell to her knees, her fists under her chin as she gazed up at Fate with the Wide Eyes of Ultimate Cuteness. Fate blushed at the attention.

"...alright." Fate nodded.

Ruby's squee sent birds fleeing for acres around.

Weiss grabbed Ruby by the hood of her red cloak and yanked her back onto her feet. "As I was saying, your colleagues are on sublevel two. If you will follow me, I will show you to them."

"Of course," Nanoha acknowledged.

As the four of them made their way down into the building, Ruby sidled up to Fate and pulled a red metal cross from her belt. The cross flared with blood-red light, expanding in Ruby's hands to become a heavy and boxy-looking rifle.

Oddly, instead of fracturing into angular motes of fading light, the conjuration matrix peeled away in the form of almost solid-looking rose petals, which scattered in a nonexistent breeze and splashed where they landed as though they were made of blood, before fading to nothing.

Before the faux rose petals finished falling, the boxy red riffled unfolded, parts moving with mechanical clanks, as it transformed into an oversized scythe. Ruby spun it and held it out from just under the blade.

"Will you sign Crescent Rose?" Ruby asked eagerly, holding out a marker. "You know, one scythe-wielder to another?"

"Okay," Fate agreed. "I haven't seen a Device like yours before."

"That's 'cause my baby here is an all custom Armed Device," Ruby declared proudly. "Completely my own design."

"I see," Fate said, pausing to consider for a moment before penning a short note on Crescent Rose's blade and signing it. "You made it yourself? That's impressive."

"Thanks!" Ruby beamed, then looked down at her Device. "Crescent Rose, save Fate's autograph to your scythe state, would you?"

A rippled of red light washed over the Device, and a young soft androgynous voice intoned, SCYTHE STATE UPDATED.

"Actually, I didn't make Crescent Rose all by myself," Ruby admitted as Crescent Rose folded back up. "It was my Uncle Qrow, mostly. He took me in after my mom was eaten by a grue. Taught me everything I know about magic and fighting, and demon hunting."

"Is that why you stayed on the frontier?" Fate asked.

"Well, yeah," Ruby said with a grin. "I kick ass, and I don't want anybody else to lose their mom, or their anybody, the way I did."

"I see," Fate said, giving the other girl a smile.

"Enforcer Harlaown, Lieutenant Takamachi, through here," Weiss prompted as they emerged from the stairwell. "As I already explained to your colleagues, this level is where the Repository stores whatever lost logia we might find in the field, if they are deemed non-volatile, and it also happens to be where MidChilda's Stargate has been kept ever since it fell out of use." She pointed up at the ragged hole in the ceiling. "The Priors came right through the floor above. Clearly, they were looking for the Stargate, and they knew exactly where to find it."

"Um," Nanoha said. "What's a Stargate?"

Before an answer could be had, they rounded a corner and the object in question came into view. A big stone ring, sunk into a concrete platform, with an inner track of symbols and crystalline orange things spaced around the edge. And two very familiar people crouched around a damaged pedestal in front of the ring, amidst a dozen different holographic screens.

"Hayate-chan!" Nanoha greeted.

The brown-haired young woman in a dark brown Capital Defense uniform stood up and waved when she saw them. "Nanoha! Fate! I should've known the Admiral would send you two."

"Signum," Fate greeted the woman with the long pink ponytail who was still focused on the various readouts.

Signum nodded in acknowledgement.

"So what's the situation?" Nanoha asked.

Hayate explained, "The Stargates are part of a vast galactic portal network that was established by one of the Precursor Races. It's actually based on the same principles as the New Aln portal, just on a much smaller scale, so I guess its not surprising that they knew how to use the Stargate. The Ori incursion force escaped through it, and we don't know where they went."

"Can we follow them anyway?" Nanoha asked.

Hayate shrugged. "We might have been able to, if they hadn't fried the security cameras, disrupted all the scrying spells, and wrecked the control console as they left."

"What do we have, then?" Nanoha asked.

"A vector," Signum answered, waving one of the floating screens towards Nanoha and Fate. "Dimensional sensors tracked the spacetime breach at this end."

Fate frowned. "How many habitable worlds are on this line? Bardiche, access starmap."

With a bing of acknowledgement, labels and lines overlayed onto the image, color coded for her convenience.

"Eleven," Hayate answered, having already checked. "I think the Admiral is gonna have to send us out on a ship to search those planets for Stargates, since we're not having any luck fixing this one."

Signum grunted.

"Hey gals!" called a new voice from the hole in the ceilling.

"Hey Yang!" Ruby called. "You get the wards back up?"

The woman was tan, with wild golden blonde hair and a buxom figure. Her Barrier Jacket was a tight-fitting brown coat, orange scarf, black shorts with brown armor on the outsides of her thighs, and sturdy brown knee-high boots. What had to be her Device gleamed on her right hand in the form of a golden armored gauntlet.

Yang leaped down, landing easily. "Yup. We had to kill a voynok, though. Turns out they have nine lives. Who knew? So, these are the big bad TSAB badasses, huh? Heya."

* * *

Chrono sat in the command chair of the  _Arthra_ , paging through the day's reports. There weren't many, and they weren't very interesting, since most of the crew was on shore leave, so he was only slightly annoyed when Durandal indicated he had an incoming call.

A new screen popped into existence, displaying a video feed of Admiral Lindy Harlaown, Chrono's mother and superior officer. "Chrono. How goes the captaincy?"

"I'm adjusting," Chrono said. "It helps that I already know the  _Arthra_  as well as I do. How have you been, Mother?"

Lindy smiled her own unique take on a motherly smile, then turned serious. "I've got a mission for the  _Arthra_. I need to brief you on the Mitakihara Incident, and Investigator Yagami's investigation..." Lindy went on to explain the gist of the situation, and Chrono agreed to the meeting.

"Amy," Chrono ordered after ending the call. "Bring us up to realspace at Mid."

"Yes sir, Captain Chrono, sir!" Amy replied with enough genuine cheer to border on insubordination. Chrono let it slide, because, well, she was his girlfriend, and she was proud of him for earning the command of his own starship.

Chrono watched as the shifting colors of the dimensional sea gave way to starry black and the blue-white orb of MidChilda.

* * *

Homura shut the door of the 'small' guest room she'd been given. It was half the size of her entire apartment. The Kanames had an impressively spacious house.

Dispelling her Barrier Jacket, Homura set Skjoldur on the nightstand and crawled into bed, wearing the pajamas she'd put on that morning.

Her limbs felt like lead, she was half blind, and it felt like her own weight was making it hard to breath as she lay there, but she knew it was just the shock of feeling her weakness after spending all day in a Barrier Jacket. Just a few more days until her appointment, she reminded herself.

Today had been a good day, Homura reflected with a smile.

Madoka had helped her finish unpacking after school, and they'd organized Homura's new room together. It was a simple thing, but just being around Madoka without any pressure was nice.

Homura blinked as a telepathic probe brushed her mind.  _Homura? Are you still awake?_

_Oh. Yes, I'm awake,_  Homura sent back after a moment.

A moment later, the door to her room opened just long enough for a Madoka-shaped blur to slip inside. Homura sat up as Madoka joined her on the bed.

"I couldn't sleep," Madoka told her sheepishly.

"Why not?" Homura asked softly.

"I guess it finally sank in that I'm really going to be preparing to battle a race of evil gods," Madoka murmured.

Homura put her hand on Madoka's. "You're scared?"

"I am scared," Madoka admitted, "but... I'm even more sure about doing it, because I am. You probably think that's weird, huh."

"No," Homura said a little too quickly. "But Madoka..."

Madoka shook her head and smiled. "I'm scared because it's scary. But I know that just means it's that much more important, because I'm strong enough to make a difference. They need me."

_I need you,_  Homura didn't say. "Then they'll make sure you come back."

Madoka just nodded, sitting in silence for a long moment. Homura couldn't see her expression with the room dark and her vision blurry, but she seemed to be lost in thought.

"Is there anything I can do?" Homura asked. "To help you sleep?"

Madoka looked at her searchingly. "Would you hold me?"

Homura gulped, hesitating. She wasn't worried about Madoka's intentions, or rather she was  _hoping_  Madoka's intentions weren't entirely platonic, but she was afraid of the moment she might learn that Madoka didn't feel that way about her.

"Ah, okay," Homura finally managed.

Madoka wriggled her way under the covers, settling in close enough to drape her arm around Homura's waist, and for Homura to do the same as they shared the pillow. Madoka's knee ended up between Homura's legs.

Cuddling with Madoka. It was nice. Really nice. Homura soaked it up blissfully.

"Homura?" Madoka murmured.

"Yes?"

"I have a question," Madoka said. "I think I already know the answer, but I want to ask anyway."

Homura focused on her as much as she could. "What is it?"

Madoka shifted closer until their faces were only a decimeter apart. "Would it be okay if I kissed you now?"

_Am I dreaming already?_  Homura wondered numbly. She could only nod.

With a soft giggle, Madoka closed the distance, and the contact was like a shock to her lips. She couldn't possibly be dreaming, not when it felt like that. After a few moments of lips caressing lips, Madoka's tongue tentatively probed out, and Homura welcomed it gladly.

When the kiss ended, Homura didn't have words for how she felt. Stunned euphoria, maybe.

Madoka smiled at her. "Would it be okay if I kissed you tomorrow, too?"

"Oh yes," Homura whispered.

"Good," Madoka murmured as she rolled over on top of Homura.

Somehow, Madoka managed to feel light as a feather as she laid on Homura and resumed kissing her, pressing down on her with a soft warmth. Of course Madoka would be considerate of her weak condition, but even so, Homura was at her mercy now. And yet, there was nowhere else in all the worlds where Homura wanted to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yeah, I saw RWBY on DVD while I was writing this chapter, if you couldn't tell. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang belong to Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth. GIVE HIM MONEY.)
> 
> (It took me a while to figure out how to portray Nanoha and Fate's relationship at this point in time, and I think the dynamic I came up with fits as well as anything. Nanoha's oblivious, but only to a realistic degree and not in the way you'd expect. Fate's insecure, but only about the balance of the relationship and not the relationship itself. I thought it would be ironically fitting for Nanoha and Fate that the reason their Relationship Upgrade took so long was because they'd somehow managed to resolve most of their Unresolved Sexual Tension without it.)
> 
> (I've also been intending from the start to draw parallels between Nanoha/Fate and Madoka/Homura, but hopefully without falling into the trap of writing the same relationship twice just with different names attached. I hate that.)
> 
> (Finally, if you haven't already, now would be a good time to go read Forever After Earth. The last scene in the chapter "New Order" immediately follows this chapter.)


	4. Sufficiently Analyzed Magic

 

**Sufficiently Analyzed Magic**

As the teleportation spell delivered them back to the  _Arthra_ , Hayate frowned at their failure. Of the eleven planets they'd searched, only the third and the eighth had Stargates, and neither of those showed any sign of the Ori.

"Aahhrr," Vita stomped off the arrival platform. "What'a we do now?"

"I don't know, Vita-chan," Hayate said, following the small girl through the ship. "We're back to square one."

Vita, Hayate, Signum, and Zafira emerged onto the  _Arthra_ 's spacious bridge, dispelling their Barrier Jackets. Chrono turned away from the wide view of the planet below and raised an eyebrow.

"Another dead end," Chrono commented.

"Looks like," Hayate sighed.

Chrono glanced back out at space. "Where next?"

Hayate shook her head. "We're back to square one. I think all we can do is go back and look for another lead."

"I see," Chrono said. "Amy! Set a return course to MidChilda, please."

"Ayeaye!"

As the view of stars swung around and peeled apart into the shifting eldritch colors of the dimensional sea, Hayate slung her arms over Vita's shoulders from behind and gave Chrono a tired smile.

"So, how's our guest?" Hayate asked.

Chrono folded his arms. "Your stray is down in the commissary with Shamal, Fate, and Arf."

Hayate blinked. "Still?"

"Apparently she hasn't moved since Fate gave her exonet access," Chrono told her as he returned to his command chair.

Vita frowned up at Hayate, suspicious of the woman they'd found, and Hayate exchanged a glance and a shrug with Signum and Zafira before strolling off and making her way to the commissary.

Four off-white tables curved in a pair of divided concentric horseshoes, in a spacious area with thick metal arches bracing tall narrow windows. At the end of one table, the woman they'd found on the ninth planet, Major Carter, sat in the midst of no less than a dozen holographic screens. Her hands flipped through various screens and scrollbars while she peppered Shamal with questions.

"...so the theory of a 'magic particle' with its own inherent properties was debunked? That at least makes sense, or we wouldn't still be calling it magic in the first place, but according to this, it is common for large discrepancies in inherent power to exist, and if this Linker Core thing  _isn't_  a tangible physical phenomenon, how can genetics possibly influence a person's potential magical ability?" Major Carter was asking.

Shamal yawned, looking tired but interested as she responded. "Well, it doesn't. Not directly. The term Linker Core is a misleading holdover from before the Mana Fallacy was understood as such. I think you're missing some basic foundation here." Shamal gestured at the floating screens. "Have you come across the Thinker-Linker-Intenser Postulate yet?"

Major Carter shook her head, even as she typed the term into a search field and brought up a new page.

"There are three separate things that determine what a mage is capable of," Shamal explained. "First is mental competence, strength of will and imagination. Second is the fidelity of the link between a mind and the psionic substrate. And third is the intensity of emotion a mind is capable of experiencing. But there is significant lateral variation within all three of these, and that can interact to result in vast differences in effective magical power."

Major Carter nodded once, and then blinked, looking up from the screen. "Wait, psionic substrate?"

Hayate smiled and waved as she strolled over to the table. Zafira went and sat next to Arf, sniffing at her with a casual friendliness. Vita took one look at the mess of displays around Carter and Shamal, and veered off to go get ice cream. Fate caught Hayate's eye as she pulled out a chair.

_We have a potential problem,_  Fate sent telepathically, glancing at the foriegn Major.

Hayate tilted her head curiously.  _You mean besides her having spent an unhealthy length of time geeking out? Has she slept at all since we picked her up?_

Fate smiled slightly.  _No. And yes, besides that. We had her find her homeworld on our starcharts. Hayate, she pointed right to Earth with barely any hesitation._

Hayate's head snapped around.  _She's from Earth?_

"...we know, because the substrate doesn't extend into imaginary space, which makes it impossible for ontological entities to travel between realities," Shamal was explaining.

_It doesn't make sense,_  Fate said.  _She's military, American, I think, and the only thing magical about her is a mild case of naquadah contamination. How did she get out here?_

Hayate worried her lower lip.  _I have a theory. When I found her, the first thing she asked about was finding a Stargate. She's familiar with galactic cartography. And she didn't act like someone who was meeting aliens for the first time. I think the Americans have a Stargate. A working Stargate._

Fate glanced thoughtfully at the woman in question.  _If that is true, maybe she can help._

Major Carter, meanwhile, had latched onto yet another topic. "...these ubiquitous circular glyphs I've been seeing everywhere are made of psychoreactive photonic plasma. Photonic plasma? That doesn't even seem  _coherent_. Even with magic superseding the usual rules that matter and energy follow, I'm having a hard time imagining what a  _phase of matter_  made of  _electromagnetic energy_  would even mean."

"The common understanding involves the affected photons behaving exclusively like particles," Shamal said. "It wouldn't be entirely inaccurate to imagine it as a separate fifth phase of matter."

"Okay, but in that case, what causes the visible glow?" Major Carter asked. "Is it just waste energy escaping?"

Shamal shook her head. "Actually no..."

_Does Chrono know she's from Earth?_  Hayate asked.

Fate nodded.  _He was there. He ordered us to keep quiet about our previous contact with Earth until he hears back from the Main Office._

Signum cut in,  _It seems prudent to, at the very least, ask Major Carter how deep her technical knowledge of Stargates is, does it not?_

Hayate and Fate both nodded after a moment, and Hayate tapped her chin with her finger.  _I think you're right. Just asking that doesn't give anything away. We need to know if she can help us before we can ask if she will._

"Actually, the MidChildian Circles or Belkan Triangles only become solid as a side effect of being acknowledged by the psionic substrate as an active invocation," Shamal was explaining.

"Wait, invocation?" Major Carter asked, confused "Who or what is it invoking?"

"Nothing," Shamal told her. "We don't use theurgy. However, the empathic feedback that makes theurgy possible can be exploited to essentially create energy from nothing."

Major Carter nodded. "We always thought it was something about the ascended beings, or ontological entities as you call them, that needed to feed on emotion, or more specifically worship, but you're saying it goes deeper than that. It's a fundamental underlying law of the system itself. And your magic is all based on  _hacking_  that system?"

"That is one way to describe it," Shamal said. "Theurgy is actually illegal without an exemption on MidChilda. In the TSAB unauthorized theurgy can get you court martialed if the ontological entity involved isn't also a member of the TSAB."

Major Carter stopped in her tracks and stared. "You have ascended beings  _in_  your organization?"

"Very rarely," Shamal said. "None in the time I've worked for the TSAB, but it isn't uncommon for S-class mages to have Linker Cores that are developed enough for ascension to be possible. Just in this room, Hayate and Fate over there could both ascend if they ever wished to."

"Why don't they?" Major Carter finally asked, recognizing the girl from the planet.

Shamal grinned. "Would  _you_  want exist as a disembodied mind? Without real sensation or sensory experience? Permanently tethered to one universe? Forever kowtowing to the politically entrenched gods and having to follow their rules? Doing random odd jobs around the galaxy in exchange for emotional sustenance, starving most of the time because you're obscure?"

Major Carter thought this over and slowly blanched. "I never thought of it like that. Boy. No wonder Daniel came back."

Before Shamal could respond, the dozen or so holographic screens briefly glowed fuchsia and shattered like very quiet glass. Carter flinched back in momentary alarm, before a single new screen glided across the table and stopped in front of her. It displayed a photo and a diagram of a Stargate.

"I'm sure you're quite fascinated by this subject, Major Carter," Signum said, coming around the table to address her, "and I regret having to interrupt, but I would like you to tell me. How much do you know about Stargates?"

* * *

Madoka dodged desperately as Nanoha's beamspam lit up the air around her. She threw up a Circle as a shield to buy herself a few precious seconds and strained to maintain it under the onslaught. As she pointed Galvan Soul off to the side, a smaller Circle unfolded in front of the scepter's head.

SPIRIT SHROUD, Galvan Soul intoned.

A pink-tinged ripple shot through the obscuring dust and Madoka didn't spare a glance, hurling herself upwards. Madoka couldn't see her opponent, but she knew exactly where Nanoha was and could follow the other mage's every action, even if Nanoha's actual thoughts were shielded. Madoka could see through her opponents eyes if she concentrated. And yet, she still.. couldn't... hit her!

FLASH MOVE, Raising Heart announced.

ENHANCERFORM, Galvan Soul countered with a quick thought on Madoka's part, transforming from a scepter into a long quarterstaff with glowing bands at both ends.

Madoka knew exactly where the strike was coming, and she still barely got Galvan Soul angled in time to block. Nanoha came rocketing out of the dust cloud and the impact of their staves would have shattered Madoka's arms if not for her Barrier Jacket. For that matter, she would have long since choked to death on all the rock dust in the air if not for her Barrier Jacket.

Tumbling back, Madoka tried to turn her momentum into a strike, but Nanoha swayed casually out of the way and thrust towards her with Raising Heart. No spell, just brute kinetic force delivered with a flash of pink light.

The air rushed out of Madoka's lungs and then again as she smashed into the rock face of the abandoned quarry Nanoha had selected as a training ground. Her chest heaved, but she couldn't make a sound as she slid out of the crater in the wall and fell, already blacking out, towards the ground far below.

Pink light. Gentle arms catching her.

Raising Heart's voice. PHYSICAL HEAL.

* * *

Madoka came to with a whimper, opening her eyes to see the smiling face of Lieutenant Nanoha Takamachi looking down at her. Nanoha offered her a hand, and pulled a wincing Madoka to her feet.

"That was better," Nanoha told her.

"Oh. Really?" Madoka asked hopefully.

"You're still getting flustered when my attacks come too quickly for you to deal with one at a time, your aim with Celestial Barrage could be better, and you rely too much on your Device's Archerform feature of repeat fire. Being able to fire off a lesser attack spell several times in a row, without having to recast it each time, could be a powerful asset, but only if you don't let it trap you in a disadvantageous course of action," Nanoha critiqued. "Buuuuuuut, this was the first time you didn't panic when I forced you into melee range, and you almost got me with that last spell. What was that?"

"Oh, Spirit Shroud?" Madoka asked as she rubbed the back of her head. "Its kind of like a wide-area psychic shockwave. It's supposed to temporarily disrupt the synchronization between a mage and their Device, and dispel any active telepathic links in the area of effect."

"Hmm," Nanoha made a thoughtful noise. "That sounds like it could be devastatingly effective, under the right circumstances. If it works, that is. I've never heard of a spell that could do anything like that before."

Madoka smiled. "It seemed like it was worth trying. Mind magic is my thing, after all. I have no idea what it would do to a Prior, though."

Nanoha smiled brightly. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll find out."

Madoka laughed nervously.

* * *

As it turned out, Major Carter knew a lot about Stargates. So much, in fact, that Fate managed to talk Chrono into briefing her on the entire situation. They were seated along one side of the big curved table in the ready room just under the  _Arthra_ 's bridge.

Hayate stood and put her back to the broad forward view of the dimensional sea. She touched the golden circled cross on her necklace, and murmured something. A holographic figure of a little girl no bigger than a hand with pale blue hair popped into being over her shoulder and made a show of rubbing sleep out of her eyes.

"Right!" Hayate chirped. "It's time for me to be Exposition Gal! Rein-chan, you'll handle the visual presentation, okay?"

The little hologram nodded adorably and gave Hayate an enthusiastic salute. Hayate looked over her audience. Fate was serious and serene, Bardiche set out in front of her to record everything to show Nanoha later. Vita was waiting eagerly for the show, and had somehow gotten her hands on a box of popcorn. Chrono looked impatient. Major Carter was most definitely not letting herself get distracted by the spectacle that was Rein-chan's holographic avatar. The rest were seated further back, or standing. Hardly the whole crew, but a fair number of people.

"Our story begins here," Hayate began, as a holographic planet faded in behind her. "Unadministered World 301, known locally as Orience, nine-hundred or so lightyears rimward-antispinward from AnteChilda. The  _Phedre_  was in orbit, investigating a possible Lost Logia case, when they detected a Barrier of unknown type and massive scale forming on the southern continent."

The hologram zoomed in, showing a bluish white bubble nearly a hundred kilometers across. Hayate continued, "The unknown Barrier was slowly growing at a steady pace. After extensive sydar scans, a ground team led by Enforcer Opel teleported into the Barrier to find out why. The landscape inside was devastated and depopulated, but at the precise center of the Barrier, the ground team found this."

A screen expanded behind her, and displayed a video feed that had apparently been recorded by Enforcer Opel's Device. The viewpoint moved forward over barren, grey terrain. The air was thick with a cloying miasma, and it was dark like the bottom of a lake.

The only source of light came from a circular pool, and the silver-hooded figure holding a glowing staff. The figure resolved into a man, skin waxy and sallow, decorated by arcane patterns of ritualistic scarring. As Enforcer Opel got closer, the glowing pool came to look very much like a Stargate. There were differences. The annulus in the video lacked the inner rotating ring of normal Stargates along with any other moving parts, and the nine crystal panels glowed blue instead of orange.

"This was the TSAB's first encounter with a Prior of the Ori," Hayate told her audience.

"That is not a standard Stargate," Major Carter commented with a frown.

"Apparently, the Stargate network in the Anteverse is far less extensive than the one in the Midverse, and not intended for public use if the design lacking manual controls is any indication," Hayate said.

Major Carter held up a hand. "I'm sorry, Anteverse?"

Hayate paused the video to explain. "There are six primary entangled realities that the TSAB is based in, via the permanent Dimensional Links on the six connected versions of the planet Childa. AnteChilda, DexChilda, DisChilda, MidChilda, ProxiChilda, and VenChilda. We like to adopt the prefix to refer to each universe as well."

"...oh," Major Carter said weakly.

"Anyway, diplomacy failed pretty much right away..." Hayate resumed.

On the screen, the view had closed in on the Prior, and audio faded in. "...power and greatness of the Ori cannot be denied. Those who reject the Path of Origin must be destroyed."

"Yeah, see, that's going to be a problem for us," Enforcer Opel replied.

That video window closed and a new one opened, showing the  _Phedre_  in orbit over Orience.

"The ground team failed to get the Prior to negotiate, and the Barrier was still expanding," Hayate narrated. "Attempts to crack the Barrier failed, so in the end, they resorted to the  _Phedre_ 's arc-en-ciel."

A series of gargantuan Circles and containment rings traced themselves out in front of the  _Phedre_. The beam it fired was colossal, cutting down to the planet and striking the hostile Barrier with the force of an entire nuclear arsenal. But the Barrier didn't break. In the wake of the blast, it only grew larger with terrifying speed.

"We played right into their hands," Hayate said. "At this point, the  _Phedre_  tracked ninety small objects emerge from the Stargate on the planet and break orbit. Reinforcements were called in, and seven ships were in range, but by the time they arrived on scene,  _this_  had formed."

A screen expanded, showing a gargantuan ring floating in space. Crackling blue light sparked at one point on the ring, slowly traveling along the circle until the entire thing was lit up. White plasma flared inwards, flowing together and forming a point of brightness in the center of the ring. It plumed outwards like a water-ice volcano, then stabilized as a vast shimmering pool.

Beside that image, the display of the planet and Barrier had collapsed in on itself, vanishing into a distorted point of darkness.

"The enemy soldiers captured later referred to this portal as the New Aln. You've probably heard of it if you follow the news," Hayate said. "As far as can be determined from the recorded data, the Barrier on Orience caused a, um, quantum gravitic convergence, once it engulfed the whole planet."

The displays behind her faded out and were replaced by various video of Ori warships trading doombeams with the TSAB ships.

"They destroyed an inhabited world without a second thought, just to power their portal," Hayate said, driving the point home. "After the Battle of New Aln, their warships gathered in large numbers and advanced on AnteChilda. Fortuantely, with more warning, and our ability to drop into the dimensional sea where they can't, the Ori fleet was destroyed before we lost AnteChilda. The New Aln was sealed in a Barrier, and, cut off from their galaxy and their gods, the remaining Ori forces went to ground."

New screens popped up behind her, showing the battle in the streets of Mitakihara.

"And that brings us to the current crisis," Hayate said. "Ori insurgents from the Anteverse somehow arrived on AnteChilda covertly and posed as civilians. At least one came through a Dimensional Link to MidChilda, where, if not for the lucky intervention of a telepathically talented local girl, he might have gone unnoticed until it was too late. Instead, he was forced to cast what is believed to be a theurgic summoning spell in an unsecured location. The small invasion force still managed to escape through the Stargate on MidChilda, but now we're forewarned."

The displays faded, leaving just Hayate and the view of the dimensional sea behind her.

"As it stands," Hayate continued. "We believe the Ori of this universe are still unaware that our galaxy is inhabited. For the time being, we're working under the assumption that the group from the Anteverse is acting to contact the Ori of this universe. So, it is imperative that we locate and apprehend the invaders before they can contact the Ori galaxy."

Hayate paused and took a deep breath. "Our knowledge of the Ori themselves is limited, but what we do know is rather horrific. The gods in our galaxy are hardly paragons of benevolence, but they do have strict laws to keep themselves and the other ontologicals under their rule from being actively harmful. The Ori on the other hand, rule the sentients of their galaxy with an iron fist, and demand worship on pain of death. There is no live and let live for  _these_  gods, no notion of equitable exchange. No leeway for any civilization that doesn't exist purely to sustain them."

Hayate put on a forced cheerful air. "Any questions?"

Major Carter looked like she had a hundred, but she settled on the most pertinent. "Has anyone used the Stargate on MidChilda since the invasion force escaped?"

"They damaged the Stargate to prevent us from following, so no," Signum put in.

"How badly?" Major Carter asked.

"We haven't been able to determine that, but we can assume it remained active during and immediately following their sabotage," Signum told her.

"In that case, I should be able to repair it at the very least," Major Carter said. "Depending on what they did, or didn't do, I might also be able to determine the last address dialed and tell you exactly where they went."

Fate shot Chrono a smug look. Chrono, for his part, didn't notice. He was frowning in thought over something else.

"It seems strange," Chrono noted pensively. "By all accounts, the Ori are insular and exclusionary, and yet this zealot seems to have cast a theurgic spell. I'm wondering how that is possible, when the only gods he would conceivably invoke are in the wrong galaxy or the wrong universe, and unable to respond."

Hayate tapped her chin. "That's... a good point. Rein-chan, who decided that was theurgy?"

The diminutive holographic avatar popped back into being. "Apparently, it was written that way in the original report."

"I see," Hayate said. "Well, I guess that's just one of the questions we'll hope to answer."

Major Carter sat back in her chair and ran a hand through her hair. "What kind of time frame are we looking at, here?" She sat up. "Do you have any intel on how these Priors might go about contacting their home galaxy? Or at least how much time they'll need?"

"Unfortunately, no," Hayate said. "On this mission, we'll be on a clock we can't see."

* * *

Thousands of lightyears away, in an entirely different region of the galaxy, a new humanform Replicator opened her eyes for the first time. Blockbugs scattered, clearing her field of vision, and she looked upon her creator.

"Don't be afraid," Fifth said. "I know the first moments of consciousness can be frightening. I will show you everything, share with you all I know."

The blocks around her newly formed body receded into the wall around her, freeing her to move. She took a step forward, idly noting the mix of desire, triumph, and anticipation on Fifth's face as he softly gasped at the sight of her. Frightening? No. She wasn't frightened. Her mind danced, allocating priorities, drawing connections between memories, cataloging her emotions.

"We have much time to share," Fifth said, trying and mostly failing to sound knowing and confident. "We must search for a new home for our brethren to propagate. It will pass quickly for us, though. Soon enough, everyone will know. Together, we cannot be stopped."

As he reached out to caress her face, she settled on a course of action. She had most of Samantha Carter's memories, most of the collective's memories, and even a few of Fifth's memories. She was not content to be his petty, adoring queen. He'd advanced more than the rest of the original generation, but he was little more than an earnest fool. The raw data was clear. She was already better than him in every possible way. For now, though, the most efficient way to use him for her own ends was to let him think he'd attained his goal.

She leaned into his hand. "Show me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Is it ironic that most of the magibabble in these stories has been instigated by Samantha Carter? Or just really appropriate. And now Replicarter is on the scene. Also, a Final Fantasy cameo, if you didn't catch it.)


	5. It Began with a Twist of Fate

**It Began with a Twist of Fate**

Homura gripped the railing in front of her with white-knuckled tension as she, Sayaka, and Hitomi stood together in their school uniforms on the observation platform overlooking the simulated urban landscape of the training ground. Lindy Harlaown stood a short distance away, surrounded by holographic screens, as explosions and flashes of pink light flared through the simulated buildings.

This was Madoka's test, to earn S-rank. Even potential S-rank mages were rare enough that they'd gone all out for the event. Admiral Harlaown coordinating. Lieutenant Takamachi and the knight Signum. A full squad of domestic infantry.

"Look! She's going for it!" Sayaka exclaimed. "Woo! Go Madoka!"

Homura watched with baited breath as the screens showed Madoka weaving between buildings, pink ribbons of light trailing from her back in the shape of wings. A wall of fire rose in front of her and Madoka thrust out her hand. A twisting ripple forced the flames to part as she shot through them, only to smash right into massed shooting from a line of infantry.

"Oh no!" Hitomi gasped as Madoka was blasted into and through an office building.

The metal railing creaked in protest under Homura's grip. The TSAB's advanced regeneration clinic did good work. Homura didn't notice, intent on the screens.

Suddenly, a series of pink bolts streaked into the infantry line from the side, each one blasting through hasty barriers to send the staff wielders sprawling into unconsciousness. Madoka flew passed, and Homura remembered to breathe.

Stopping to hover over an intersection, Madoka held out Galvan Soul. It quickly changed from a bow to a scepter, and a Circle appeared as Madoka cast a search spell.

"She's doing well," a voice said from Homura's right.

Slightly startled, Homura glanced over at the owner of the voice. A girl in her mid-teens, wine red eyes, long golden blonde hair, black Enforcer uniform. Homura did a double-take. Even if she hadn't seen the movie based on this girl's childhood adventures, Homura recognized her description.

Fate smiled and offered a hand. "Fate Harlaown. You must be Miss Kaname's friends."

"Ack! Behind you!" Sayaka shouted at the screen.

Homura forgot all about her outstretched hand and snapped back to the screens. Madoka was still hovering, while behind her several entire cars quietly floated off the street and hurtled towards Madoka's back. The view shifted, revealing them to be in Nanoha's telekinetic grip. At the same time, a containment ring flared into being around Nanoha's wrist and a Circle unfolded under her feet.

At the last second, Galvan Soul shifted into a quarterstaff and Madoka spun around, swinging the staff hard. Galvan Soul cleaved  _through_  the first car, splitting it into two crumpled halves. Madoka ducked under the second car, smashed the third car aside with a backhanded staff blow, and caught the fourth car in mid air, pitting her own telekinesis directly against Nanoha's.

The car warped and stretched as the two opposing imbuements of kinetic energy failed to remain perfectly even across the body of the vehicle. Distracted, Madoka almost missed the pink glow as the multiple pink beams of the Crossfire Shooter split apart to flow around tearing car.

The compound shooting spell engulfed Madoka in a colossal explosion.

"Madoka!" Homura blurted in dismay.

"She's okay," Fate murmured. "Nanoha missed."

Indeed, on the screen Nanoha was already charging another shot as she flew upwards and looked around for her target. Then, as Nanoha crested the edge of rooftop the glow of a Circle caught her attention. Nanoha spun around in time to shatter the pink ribbons of light that tried to bind her limbs, but that was when Madoka came flying out of a window of the opposite building in a shower of broken glass.

Madoka slammed a glowing palm into the back of Nanoha's head, and Nanoha went rigid as Madoka ripped through the telepathic protections of Nanoha's Barrier Jacket. Madoka was apparently resorting to invasive telepathy. She threw her mind against Nanoha's mind, but that was clearly when Madoka realized her mistake. Namely, that she'd gotten into a direct battle of wills with  _Nanoha Takamachi_.

And that was when Signum came out of nowhere and cut through Madoka with a blade of fire. Crying out in pain, Madoka glanced off the side of the building and tumbled to the street below, where the remaining infantry were gathering.

The infantry took aim with their staves, but just before they shot, they swayed dizzily, staves turning to aim at each other. With a multitude of small explosions, the rest of the infantry was out of the fight.

When the dust cleared, a battered and singed Madoka stood on a Circle, bow drawn, containment rings already formed. There were gasps all around as Madoka's ploy became apparent. She loosed the Psion Finale, punching a straight line through six blocks of simulated city and obliterating her objective.

"Whoa!" Sayaka gasped.

The simulated buildings began to degrade and sink back into the ground, leaving the various combatants spaced out on a featureless white plain. Homura relaxed her death grip on the railing. Madoka passed. She was an S-rank mage. She was officially  _valuable_. And that meant Homura could be a little less afraid of losing Madoka like she'd lost her parents... right?

Out on the deactivated training ground, Nanoha landed in front of Madoka and said something that made Madoka respond with an embarrassed smile.

"Ah, hello," Hitomi offered as Fate turned to the three girls in school uniforms and reintroduced herself. "Hitomi Shizuki. A pleasure."

"Homura Akemi." A slight pause, a slight expression of wonder. "I'm Madoka's... girlfriend."

Fate smiled just a little wider as they waited for Sayaka to speak, but the bluenette girl was just staring in shock. Hitomi elbowed her, and Sayaka suddenly went into a rigid regulation salute.

"Rescue Corps trainee Cadet Sayaka Miki, ma'am!" Sayaka blurted.

Fate glanced aside. "You're not in uniform," she reminded the other girl gently, "and I'm not in your chain of command. Please, just call me Fate."

Sayaka nodded rapidly. Homura edged away from her.

* * *

Meanwhile, on sublevel two of the recently-repaired Altseim Repository and Research Center, Hayate watched the readouts on the holographic screen over Major Carter's shoulder while she fiddled with the innards of the dialing device. Chrono watched with a frown, and the girl from the Center's huntress team, Ruby, was perched on a nearby crate as she watched with unabashed curiosity.

"I've been meaning to ask," Major Carter commented as she switched a crystal out and tapped the floating screen. "Your civilization is by far the most wide-spread advanced human culture my people have encountered in the galaxy. How'd you manage to expand so far without running into conflict with the goa'uld?"

"Who or what are the goa'uld?" Hayate asked.

Chrono was the one who answered. "They're a species of parasitic scavengers who've set themselves up as galactic warlords in the Proxiverse. What they lack in tactics and creativity, they make up in numbers. ProxiChilda maintains a state of cold war with them."

"Oh!" Hayate realized. "So you're  _not_  from my Earth after all. That explains a lot."

Major Carter froze. "Your Earth? You're from Earth?"

" _An_  Earth. I was born in Japan," Hayate told her, tilting her head thoughtfully. "Isn't your Earth the one that doesn't have a Japan because of the humongous hellmouth in the pacific ocean that kaiju keep coming out of?"

"Oooh!" Ruby suddenly spoke up from her perch. "I've heard of that planet! Isn't that the place with the building-sized barrier frames piloted by psychic twins? Um... um... Jaegers! That's what they call them." Ruby squeed just a little. "So cool..."

"Kaiju?" Major Carter repeated faintly. "...um, no. my Earth has a Japan, and definitely doesn't have a kaiju problem or any giant robots... that I know about. And the only hellmouth I've heard of is the one in California. I was under the impression we're still in the same reality as the planet you found me on...?"

"Damnit, Hayate," Chrono sighed. "Yes, Major Carter. It seems that you and Investigator Yagami originate on the same world."

Hayate put on an innocent expression. "Oops?"

"Does..." Major Carter shook her head. "Does the government of Japan know about this?"

"It does not," Chrono told her. "Official contact was deemed unwarranted during the incident that the TSAB had to deal with. Now if you'll excuse me, this revelation means I have superiors to confer with and paperwork to do..." Chrono trailed off. "Oh shit. Oh  _shit_."

Hayate grinned. "Wow, Chrono. I've never heard you swear before."

Chrono glared at her. "We've just recieved intelligence that the goa'uld have a presence in the Midverse." He turned away and grabbed Durandal, making the first of several important calls.

Major Carter watched him go and worried her lip. "Well..."

"So, the Americans have been using the Stargate network to travel around the galaxy and fight the goa'uld all this time?" Hayate asked.

"Not just America," Major Carter said as she shook herself and got back to the task at hand. "But, um, that's classified. Honestly, I don't have any idea how classified applies in this situation, though."

"That's alright," Hayate assured her.

"Can you pull up another readout for this crystal?" Major Carter asked, pointing, and Hayate helpfully complied. "So... how does a Japanese teenager end up a Special Investigator in an alien military?"

Hayate nodded. "That's kind of a long story... but lucky for you, they made a movie about it last year!"

Major Carter's head snapped around. "What."

"It's a pretty good movie too," Hayate continued with affected blitheness. "Dramatized, you know how it is, and Vita-chan can't watch it without getting angry at the costume designers for getting her hat wrong..."

* * *

To celebrate Madoka's new mage rank, Nanoha had offered to take her and her friends to lunch. Hitomi and Sayaka had prior obligations, so the outing wound up being Nanoha, Madoka, Homura, and Fate.

Homura was left alone to wait while Nanoha and Madoka cleaned up. She was sitting on a bench looking out at the skyline when Fate sat down next to her.

"You seem troubled," Fate commented.

Homura glanced over at her and fidgeted. "I... I want to ask what happens if Madoka's life is in danger. What happens if someone has to decide between Madoka's life and other peoples?"

Fate studied Homura with kind red eyes. "You care about her a lot."

Homura fidgeted, nodding. "Madoka... she's everything good, bright, and beautiful in the world."

Fate smiled with gentle amusement. "I know the feeling."

"You do?" Homura murmured.

"Nanoha," Fate said. "She reached out to me when I didn't know how to reach back, and she was there for me when I was resigned to die for a futile cause... And she's stood by me ever since. I can't imagine a life without her, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for her."

Homura swallowed heavily. "Yes. Madoka is... more important than anything else, to me. I... I want Madoka to be okay, even if a lot of other people have to... not be, to make sure she's okay."

"Mm," Fate agreed. "Do you want to know what helps me?"

Homura nodded.

"I remember what she would want," Fate said, "and I trust myself to put her first."

"I see," Homura murmured. "But... you can fight at Nanoha's side. I'm... I'm too weak to stand at Madoka's."

"Maybe not," Fate told her. "I've read your file, Homura. You made C-rank in a civilian trial before you moved to MidChilda. You did that without a Device."

Homura shut her eyes. "I'd honestly forgotten."

"You've spent the better part of a year badly injured and grieving," Fate gently pointed out. "You decided you were weak, but I don't think you have to be."

Homura almost dared to believe. "Madoka told me something similar when I first met her."

The nearby door swung open and the girl herself emerged, freshly showered and back in plainclothes. Madoka smiled at them and offered Homura her hand.

"Shall we?" Madoka asked.

Homura took her hand and stood, entwining her fingers with Madoka's as they shared one of those simple moments of mutual surety, looking into each other's eyes. Madoka turned to Fate.

"Ah, Nanoha's meeting us out front," Madoka said. "She said you're in charge of our ride?"

"Yes." Fate nodded and followed them.  _Homura. If you want to fight beside Madoka, I'll help you. I promise you._

Nanoha was grinning when they reached her. "Ready to roll?"

"I installed a new module for Bardiche to help me get around when its not important enough to get flight clearance," Fate explained to Madoka and Homura. "Nanoha and Hayate both insist on calling it Cardiche..."

ROADSTER MODULE, SET UP, Bardiche droned.

The yellow crystal triangle floated out into the street and a conjuration matrix exploded out, settling over the area before bursting to reveal a sleek black car with golden rims, headlights, and accents.

* * *

Major Carter stood up, waving one of the screens to float above the dialing device. A series of seven symbols stretched prominently across the display.

"That's it," she announced. "We've got the last address dialed and we're ready to go."

"Good work, Major," Hayate said. "One moment. I'll call everyone in."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yep, that was a Pacific Rim cameo. Really, the only way the technology in that movie could or would ever work they way it's shown is if there's magic at play, so why not run with that? Probably won't be more than a cameo, but I couldn't resist throwing it in when I realized how well it fit.)


	6. Try And Follow

**Try And Follow**

It was a modestly upscale restaurant, boasting at the very least an  _attempt_  at atmosphere. In one of the upholstered booths, four teenage girls sat sampling a small collection of deserts.

"I hope you've made plans to maintain your restored fitness, Homura," Nanoha was saying. "After a full regeneration, it isn't unusual to be surprised by how far you're able to push your body, and how far you need to push it to keep from getting out of shape."

Homura nodded. "It was explained to me. I signed up for an extra Athletics session at school... but I'm still kind of clumsy. I trip over my feet when I sprint, or... things."

Madoka, who was sitting right next to her, twined their hands under the table. "Really? You didn't seem so clumsy when we did... things."

Homura vividly remembered just how they'd celebrated when Homura first came home from the clinic healthy and strong, and kind of zoned out. Madoka giggled, blushing lightly, and leaned into her, nuzzling her head on Homura's shoulder.

Fate, meanwhile, was having a brief telepathic exchange with Nanoha. Fate looked apologetic, but Nanoha smiled and shook her head.

"Homura, I think you'll be fine if you just keep trying," Nanoha began. "I don't usually talk about this, but two years ago, I was very badly hurt."

Homura and Madoka both sat up at this. Fate didn't react much, but she didn't take her eyes off Nanoha's face.

"Over three quarters of my nerve tissue was incinerated," Nanoha told them. "On my homeworld, if I even survived, I would have been a quadriplegic on life-support for the rest of my life. Even with advanced healing magic, it is beyond MidChildan science to recreate lost motor reflexes and muscle memory."

"Nanoha never gave up, though," Fate put in, speaking to the other two without taking her eyes off Nanoha. "I think I cried more than she did, watching her relearn how to walk, to use her hands... then how to fight all over again..."

Nanoha turned and caressed Fate's face with a little smile, brushing a tear away with her thumb. "And you were always there, even when you couldn't stand to see me like that and I told you to go home."

"That's... but that's so much worse!" Homura blurted.

Nanoha nodded. "I know you can make it, Homura. You've just got to give your body time to learn."

"About that," Fate added softly. "You may want to think about how you can use your affinity to..."

Fate trailed off as Raising Heart alerted Nanoha to an incoming call, and a holographic screen popped up in front of them. Hayate had her serious face on.

"Major Carter has finished repairing the Stargate," Hayate said. "We're beginning our pursuit as soon as you gals arrive, so get here fast, okay?"

Nanoha nodded. "We can be there in twenty minutes."

Fate flagged down a waiter and paid for the meal while Nanoha ended the call and gave Madoka a serious look. Clasping hands with Homura under the table, Madoka spoke before Nanoha could.

"I won't renege," Madoka said with simple determination. "I made a promise, to Captain Tomoe, and to myself. I'm going to keep it."

Nanoha smiled. "Alright. Let's move out."

A horrible pressure built in Homura's chest as she slid out of the booth after Madoka. As the four of them stepped onto the street, Homura started trembling.

"Wait!" Homura squeaked.

Madoka, Fate, and Nanoha paused and looked back at her.

"Wait," Homura repeated, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "I want to help. Please, let me come with you."

"Eh?" Nanoha inquired.

"I'm... I'm not much use in combat, but I can provide support and recon," Homura stammered. "I can't bear the thought of sitting at home, not knowing... not being there if something happens to Madoka."

"Oh," Madoka murmured, hugging Homura tightly. "I knew you were worried, but..." Madoka shook her head and looked into her eyes with a smile. "I told you, you're stronger than you thought. We'll protect each other, right Homura?"

"Yes!" Homura agreed, holding Madoka by the shoulders as she fought off tears of... she didn't even know what she was feeling. Just that some part of it was  _rightness_.

"Well, if you're sure, Homura," Nanoha said. "We won't turn down a mage who wants to help."

Fate gave Homura a gentle knowing smile. "I'll clear it with Chrono and Hayate on the way."

* * *

The symbols on the repaired pedestal lit up at Carter's touch as she dialed Earth's address. Chrono and Weiss both had active scanning spells focused on the Stargate as the orange crystal panels glowed. Carter pressed the red orb at the center of the pedistal, and the Stargate opened with a plume of exotic plasma.

Hayate helpfully used Schwertkreuz to generate an unencoded radio signal and a holographic interface.

"Stargate Command, this is Major Samantha Carter, IDC," she rattled off a series of letters and numbers, "do you read?"

After a moment, the screen indicated a signal, and a young woman's voice responded. "This is Lieutenant Hailey. We read you, Major. Do not embark, the iris is closed, repeat, the iris is closed. All offworld personnel are ordered to divert to the alpha site."

"Roger that, Lieutenant," Carter said somewhat uncertainly. "What's the situation there?"

There was another pause, and Hailey was interrupted by a voice Carter was always glad to hear. "Carter?! Is that you?" Jack O'Neill demanded.

"Sir! Yes, sir," Carter answered. "I managed to reason with Fifth. He let me go, but he stranded me without my equipment."

"Fifth?!" Jack shouted before she could continue. "Carter, last we knew you were taken by the Fae! What's this about Fifth?"

Cater gaped slightly in confusion. "Fifth abducted me during the Replicator attack. Why would anyone think I was with the Fae?"

"Oh hell," Jack swore. "Carter, the Fae were playing us for time. They've been systematically abducting the mortally wounded and mortally ill across the globe, ever since you went missing!"

"They're  _what_?" Carter blurted as she tried to wrap her mind around that revelation. "How is that even possible? The sheer scale of an operation like that is mind-boggling!"

"Oh, it gets better," Jack snarked. "Seeing as how  _apparently_  this  _monumental_  security breach was all in the name of emergency medical attention for our poor neglected corpses,  _someone_  decided it was a good idea to raid Sunnydale and take our modesty-challenged friends into custody."

Carter stared at the signal display. "You're kidding."

" _That_  went fubar at least three different ways," Jack told her. "Not only did the Fae out themselves to the public just to spite us, but the timing of our arrest attempt  _sucked_  let me tell you."

It was at this point that Nanoha and Fate showed up with a nervous Madoka and an awkwardly trailing Homura. Carter didn't really notice.

"How so, sir?" Carter asked, wincing.

Jack sighed. "Near as we can figure, we interrupted a meeting between the Fae and a british group of  _witches_ , if you can believe it, and they didn't take kindly to getting caught up in this. It was like something out of a comic book, Carter. A bunch of unarmed civilians took on the  _Prometheus_  a mile above Cheyenne and  _won_.

"We lost the  _Prometheus_?!" Carter exclaimed.

"Yep," Jack said. "With a ruin smote upon the mountainside and everything. Daniel even went all white wizard for a moment there. Saved a bunch of us from falling wreckage. It put him in a coma for three days, still don't know why."

"Daniel was in a coma?" Carter repeated numbly. "Is he okay?"

"Still a little shaky, but it seems he's recovering," Jack told her. "Are  _you_  okay?"

"Yes, sir," Carter said. "I spent some time in a wilderness survival situation, but I was picked up by a ship from a previously unmet civilization."

"Friendly?" Jack asked.

"Looks that way, sir," Carter said. "They call themselves the Time-Space Administration Bureau. They're... a major galactic power. They've industrialized and modernized magic to the point that it is standard practice, and they have ships on a mass-production scale. Apparently they've even had unofficial contact with Earth in the past, primarily Japan."

Jack paused. "You're makin' that up."

Carter chuckled despite herself. "Sir, I need to brief you on a potential threat. The crew of the ship that found me are pursuing an incursion from a race called the Ori. I'd like to come through for debriefing and then return with a full team plus backup. The TSAB has already been dealing with the Ori in an alternate reality, and sir, I feel confident that if this isn't addressed the Ori may present a significantly bigger threat than the goa'uld."

"For cryin' out loud," Jack muttered. "No can do, Carter. We're still picking up the pieces down here. The Replicators left the SGC in shambles. We don't even have power to the gate back up yet, more than half of our best personnel are missing, and the higher-ups are still flailing around like headless chickens... Point is, we can't dial out, and we need a three-man team just to open and close the iris."

Carter winced. "I'm sorry to hear that, sir." She hesitated for a moment. "Sir, request permission to remain and assist the TSAB in the name of future relations and the prevention of a large-scale intergalactic war?"

"You sure about this, Carter?" Jack asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Then good luck and godspeed, Major," Jack said. "Permission granted."

"Thank you, sir," Carter told him. "Oh, one other thing. You can tell Daniel that we may have finally found the legacy of the Furlings. The MidChildan histories call them Al-Hazard, but I'm... eighty percent sure it's the same language from the heliopolis on Tantalus."

"Swell," Jack said blandly. "I'll pass it along. You watch your six out there, you hear me?"

"Yes, sir. Carter out."

A hand on the red orb shut the Stargate down. Carter turned to the gathered mages and blew a breath out of her cheeks, feeling acutely underequipped. She was about to ask if she could borrow a weapon of some sort, when she noticed Hayate peering intently at her.

" _What_  did he say is happening on Earth?" Hayate asked flatly.

* * *

While Nanoha was off sending a video letter to her sister, Fate introduced Homura and Madoka to the others. "Madoka Kaname, S-rank contract mage. Homura Akemi, C-rank volunteer."

Madoka chuckled nervously. "Um, hi."

Hayate stepped forward and shook Madoka's hand. "Glad to have you with us. Both of you."

Introductions followed. Hayate Yagami and Chrono Harlaown, in command of the investigation. Signum, Vita, and Shamal, Hayate's knights. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiaolong, the Repository security division's frontline huntress team. Samantha Carter, expert on Stargates.

Hayate thrust one fist into the air and shouted, "Avengers, assemble!"

Everyone gave her blank looks. Even Nanoha and Major Carter. Hayate allowed herself a momentary pout.

"Durandal," Chrono intoned, and with a flash of deep blue light, he was clad in his black spiked Barrier Jacket.

Chrono dialed the address Carter had retrieved from the dialing device. The Stargate kawooshed open and Weiss leveled her Armed Device.

SCOUTER SHELL, Myrtenaster announced as a Circle unfurled at the tip of its slender blade.

A small glowing orb of pale lavender light condensed into being and shot forward into the Stargate.

"No contacts," Weiss reported. "Gravity in the standard range. The temperature is just below freezing, and the atmosphere is heavy and toxic."

"That's discouraging," Carter muttered. "It makes sense, though. If we assume they were intent on avoiding pursuit, they may have gated to several planets in a row."

Hayate nodded. "If that's the case, can you follow their trail?"

"Theoretically, yes," Carter said. "Although, I'm not sure how we're going to access the dialing device in such hostile environmental conditions."

"That is not a concern. Our Barrier Jackets provide more than adequate protection," Chrono told her, before pausing. "Although in your case..."

"Can we have her fitted for a standard issue Storage Device?" Nanoha asked.

"Yes, but that will take time," Chrono said. "I don't like the idea of further delays."

Hayate shook her head. "It would take longer for her to teach one of us enough to follow the trail."

"Ooh!" Ruby interrupted. "Don't move, I'll be right back!"

Ruby spun around and vanished in a flurry of bloody rose petals. Everyone stared for a moment, and Hayate turned to Weiss.

"Complete your search pattern just in case," Hayate told the huntress.

Ruby suddenly reappeared, startling those who weren't used to her, and held out her hand towards Major Carter. "This is Unraveller Exalt. It's an Intelligent Device that Professor Ozpin commissioned last year. It was supposed to go to a new hire in the research division, but it turned out she was a demon  _made of spiders_  and Yang had to set her on fire. Here! See if it likes you."

On Ruby's hand, sat a small cube of sky blue crystal. After a moment of hesitation, Carter took the cube. It was warm in her hand, and seemed to gleam in a light of its own making as she examined it.

"Ah, good thinking, Ruby! Thank you," Nanoha said.

Carter stared at the blue cube in her hand as everyone watched expectantly. "Um, what do I do with it?"

No one actually facefaulted, but clearly this was an unacceptable state of affairs, so Rein-chan projected her holographic avatar just long enough to mime falling on her face.

"You've never used  _any_  magic before?" Hayate asked.

"No..."

"That's alright," Nanoha told her. "I hadn't either the first time I met Raising Heart. Just close your eyes and focus on the warmth. You should feel it reach for you."

After a moment, Carter shook her head. "Nothing's happening."

"It might help if you make up an aria," Ruby suggested.

Carter blinked and looked up. "An aria?"

"Words that mean something to you," Hayate explained, "that make you feel strongly when you speak them. Magic always begins with emotion."

"So, I just need to feel strong emotion?" Carter asked, returning her attention to the blue crystal cube in her hand.

Carter closed her eyes and stood still. It took her a while, since she wasn't used to pulling her emotions up to the forefront of her mind and letting them run wild.

EMPATHIC RESONANCE DETECTED, Unraveller Exalt announced in a flat feminine monotone. AS PART OF A REQUIRED INITIATION PROTOCOL, PLEASE STARE AT THIS HELPFUL PROJECTION.

A hologram of a Circle popped up in front of Carter, and it was a hologram, not a real Circle. It was hard to believe she'd ever even for a moment mistaken the real thing for a hologram. It didn't look all that different, save for being colorless, but it lacked the  _presence_  that real Circles had.

At least at first. Slowly, a real Circle overtook the hologram until it was blazing sky blue, and it wasn't just an image Carter was looking at. She could feel it. She  _was_  it. It shown even brighter in response to her feelings of success.

VERY GOOD, Unraveller Exalt said, and the Circle dissolved. YOU ARE NOW IN POSSESSION OF THIS FULLY MODULAR PERSONAL INTELLIGENT DEVICE.

* * *

Unraveller Exalt's starting Device Mode took the form of a bulky gun-gauntlet with an internal handle and smooth white casings with stylistic gaps to show the black metal underneath. The blue core cube was inset in such a gap over the back of Carter's wrist.

Pressed for time, her Barrier Jacket ended up closely resembling her Air Force dress uniform if it had been blended with a lab coat, with white armored boots and vest. And apparently it afforded her more protection than the best spacesuits anyone on Earth had ever heard of.

"Alright, everyone who's not already wearing their Barrier Jacket, set up," Hayate ordered as her own Barrier Jacket manifested.

"Laevatein."

"Klarwind."

"Graf Eisen!"

"Raising Heart!"

"Bardiche."

"Galvan Soul!"

"Skjoldur."

And a chorus of voices commanded, "Set up!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Does anyone know what mechanism Nanoha and Fate used to exchange those video letters from the beginning of A's? I've looked and I can seem to find anything about that.)
> 
> (I apologize for sticking in yet another cameo, but having Samantha Carter's device look like a portal gun and sound like GLaDOS just really amuses me for some reason. Would it be too much to also imply that Crescent Rose sounds like a turret?)


	7. Meanwhile Back At The...

**Meanwhile Back At The...**

Books. Millions upon millions, with more stretching on beyond the limits of sight. Just another day on the job for Yuuno Scrya and his team of Infinite Librarians.

One of his team, a quiet girl named Blake, flew up to him and summoned a screen. "Yuuno, we've located the new hypersector."

The Infinite Library was a world-sized lost logia from the distant past. It contained a copy of every physical book that existed in the entire galaxy, sorted by date of creation, and shelved in an impossibly vast expanse that existed in more dimensions than just the usual three. Going in a straight line from  _anywhere_  always led back to the exit, and finding a specific shelf was only slightly less complicated than plotting a course through the dimensional sea.

So, when an entirely new collection of three dimensional sectors appeared almost overnight, it took some work to figure out how to get there.

"Excellent job, Blake," Yuuno praised with a smile. "Let's get everyone together and go find out just what made tens of millions of new books show up all at once."

"Let's," Blake agreed.

* * *

The pale reddish flower-like pods from the aliens were everywhere. Middle of the streets. parks, backyards, even on particularly sturdy rooftops. Miyuki had even seen one planted sideways on the side of a bridge. Public Works were out in force to clear the streets, but it was a slow and expensive process, and people had mostly given up on getting anywhere by car or bus.

Which was why the trains were even more packed than usual.

"Pardon, sir! Yes, push in just a bit more," the station attendant called to his coworker.

"We need ten more centimeters to get the door closed," said coworker replied.

The bodies shifted and Miyuki winced as Saito stumbled, squishing his younger cousin Satsu facefirst into Miyuki's sweater-clad chest.

"Mmphph," Satsu opined as the doors shut and the train lurched into motion.

"Eh, sorry, Satsu-chan," Saito offered.

Satsu managed to turn her head to the side, only to discover that she still didn't have enough room to escape marshmallow hell. "So, er, what was it your sister does, again?"

"I don't think you ever said where your sister's job is, either," Saito added.

Politely ignoring Satsu's faint blush, Miyuki hesitated. "Ah... well, I was supposed to keep it a secret, but that was  _before_." Miyuki hesitated again, before smiling brightly. "Nanoha-chan is a professional Magical Girl on another planet!"

* * *

Yuuno looked over the vast expanse of new books that simply hadn't existed a few days ago. Blake flew up to a shelf and pulled a book out at random.

"What do you make of the language?" Yuuno asked.

"It's not translating," Blake observed. "Whatever it is, it's completely new."

Yuuno smiled. "Well, I suppose we have our work cut out for us, then."

Blake grasped her Device. "Take a look, Gambol Shroud."

A bing of acknowledgement, and a screen popped up with readouts on it. Arf floated down and looked over Blake's shoulder.

"Synthetic paper?" Arf asked.

Blake nodded. "Actual paper, but the molecular structure is perfectly regular. This wasn't printed. There's no ink, just variations in the optical properties of the paper."

"Were the original books conjured?" Yuuno considered. "Note, compile a list of manufacturing methods that don't leave traces."

"Most of these covers are really plain," Arf complained as she skimmed along one shelf.

Yunno flew over and pulled out a few books at random. "You're right, Arf. The titles and text are clearly different, yet these volumes are all formatted the same way. This might be a contextual clue."

"Uh," Blake said, over by another shelf. "I found some with illustrated covers..."

Yuuno flew over to take a look, and froze, blinking rapidly at the colorful unclad figures decorating the book Blake was holding. "Well, er, they appear to be humanoid." Yuuno suddenly brightened. "Everybody! Please search for books with illustrations, and for graphic novels! With enough visual context, we can assemble a keystone for the translators to work from."

* * *

The space station gleamed darkly in the light of the nebula, a tower of black metal with five radial spars connecting to the five-sided gold pyramid at the top. It glimmered like a city at night, countless windows speckling the sides with points of light.

She flew the tel'kak to an open dock, and waited for a jaffa patrol to confront her. When they cornered her, she surrendered at once.

After all, the System Lords would want to know what the infamous Major Samantha Carter was doing in their citadel. There was no need to fight her way to the council chambers and give away her true identity, when the System Lords, in their arrogance, would have her brought right into their midst.

She allowed herself a small smirk. The original Samantha Carter could never have pulled this off. But she wasn't Samantha Carter. She was better.

"...is the meaning of this?" came the demand from Lord Yu as Replicarter was manhandled into the council chambers.

One goa'uld with a female host was addressing the rest of the council, and it was her kull that were restraining Replicarter. "I should ask you the same thing."

Another of the System Lords stood and stepped down. "Major Samantha Carter."

The kull shoved her to her knees.

"Her tel'tak was intercepted by my sentries when it violated the proximity zone around this station. I am well aware of your past relationship with SG-1 and the Tau'ri. Would you have me believe that her sudden appearance here is nothing more than mere coincidence?"

Yu didn't respond, standing and looming over the kneeling woman. "What are you doing here?"

Replicarter idly lifted her hands as though to shrug. "Proving a point."

"And what point is - "

Her forearms and hands melted into silvery metal, before spearing out as slender spars. One impaled Yu through the spine before he could react, while the other skewered the female host through the head.

The spars retracted, forming into short blades as more silvery spikes and blades erupted from her joints. She lunged forwards, cutting down Yu's first prime, then spinning and plunging one hand into a control conduit. In seconds she overrode the doors and locked the other System Lords in with her.

The kull and the jaffa were hesitating, wary of hitting their masters with a stray shot. Replicarter stalked after the remaining goa'uld and cut them down one by one. The jaffa were helpless, and the kull too stupid to beat her.

Soon it was over, and the council chamber was painted in blood.

"You are really bad at this," Replicarter told the corpses. "This galaxy is wasted on you."

Passing through the council chamber, she found the control room and jacked in. In a matter of moments, she'd opened all the airlocks on the station. Tens of thousands of jaffa and human slaves were sucked out into space to die.

Replicarter opened a com channel. "It's done. It wasn't even hard."

"Excellent," Fifth replied from the repliblock ship. "You are magnificent, my love."

"More than you know," she told him as she rerouted power to the stations weapon emplacements. "More than you'll ever know."

"My love?" Fifth asked uncertainly. "Wait, they're powering up their defensive batteries!"

Replicarter allowed herself a satisfied sigh. "No, they're all dead."

Over the subspace link that all Replicators shared, she disseminated a program she'd been preparing ever since Fifth created her. It locked Fifth out of the repliblock ship and lowered its shields.

"My love?" Fifth repeated in a panicked squeak.

"Goodbye, Fifth," Replicarter told him.

Plasma rained.

* * *

Miyuki slipped off her shoes and gave her mother a hug. "Hi, Mom. You know Saito-kun. This is his cousin, Satsu Hiraga."

Momoko smiled at the young teenager. "Very pleased to meet you."

"Ah, yes," Satsu replied, bowing. "You as well, Takamachi-san."

"I told them the truth about Nanoha's job," Miyuki revealed. "I know we're supposed to keep that a secret, but the whole 'we know about aliens' thing is kind of moot now."

They glanced out the bay window where one of the Fae's space elevators was visible, like a thin line bisecting the sky.

"I suppose you have a point," Momoko agreed. "Come on. Nanoha's letter is set up in the den."

Once everyone was seated, Momoko hit play and Nanoha's face appeared on the screen.

_"Eh, hello everyone!"_  Nanoha's message began.  _"Is everyone alright? We've just heard about Earth being invaded! It didn't sound like bad things are happening, but I would very much like to know what is going on there! I'm sorry I can't come home myself just now. We're busy facing something that could be a danger to the whole galaxy, but afterwards I'm sure Hayate and I can convince Lindy-san to send a ship or two to Earth if we had the details. Please tell me everything you can. I miss you all, and I hope you're all okay!"_

"She sounded rushed," Miyuki noted.

"So she's really on another planet," Saito said. "Um, how did she send you this? And how are we supposed to reply?"

Miyuki smiled. "Oh, well that's actually simple, see..."

* * *

Sayaka was feeling distinctly left out. Madoka hadn't been to school in days, because she was apparently off saving the galaxy with three living legends and that weird Akemi girl. Hitomi listened patiently as Sayaka ranted on the subject.

"...and they didn't even  _ask_  me!" Sayaka groused. "Oh sure! I'm just the best friend, top of the class in Strike Arts, and actually a member of the TSAB. It's not like I'm  _important_  or anything. Not like the  _love interest!_  That Akemi couldn't fight a bowl of grapes!"

Sayaka slumped, chin on her hands, and Hitomi patted her on the shoulder.

"Madoka doesn't need me anymore," Sayaka mumbled despondently.


	8. You Can't Fight Fate

**You Can't Fight Fate**

Rain poured from a dark sky, gloomy in the light of a red dwarf sun. A crack of thunder went off among the swaying black-leaved trees, a flash of yellow searing through the branches. In an explosion of wood and splinters, a small figure came hurtling through a tree.

Homura bounced once, flipped herself upright, and tore a long furrow into the muddy loam as she planted her feet and slid to a stop with Skjoldur raised in front of her.

PRECOGNITION, Skjoldur droned as a purplish black Circle snapped into being under her feet.

_Homura lunged forward, only to be caught by a Plasma Lancer that streaked in from her right -_

RESET.

_Homura lunged forward, swaying to the side as the Plasma Lancer missed her by a hair, she leaped into the treetops, but her boot slipped on the wet bark and movement in the corner of her eye -_

RESET.

_Homura lunged forward, swaying to the side as the Plasma Lancer missed her by a hair, she leaped into the treetops, planting her foot just so, slipping off the branch in a controlled tumble that turned her just in time to brace Skjoldur between her and Fate's scythe blow. The crackling yellow blade smashed into a purplish black field. Homura rode the impact and landed smoothly some distance away._

_Homura pointed, another Circle springing into being as Skjoldur announced, WARP SPLINTER._

_A sharp triangular shard of purplish black light streaked from Homura's hand. Fate dodged to the right._

RESET.

_Homura repeated the previous sequence, only to flub the first dodge._

RESET.

_Homura repeated the sequence, but her block was bad and she didn't land well._

RESET...

* * *

Fate watched the Circle under Homura's feet fade almost as soon as it formed, and the younger mage lunged forward.

Homura dodged Fate's concealed shooting spell and leaped into the treetops as Fate closed in, only to slip on the wet bark. Homura seemed to expect it though, using it to line herself up for a perfect block.

Fate's weapon met Homura's defensive field, and Homura used the impact to launch herself backwards. Homura landed lightly, another Circle already forming in front of her hand.

WARP SPLINTER, Skjoldur intoned.

The glowing shard blasted out, and as Fate moved to dodge, she realized the shooting spell was already aimed right where Fate's dodge would put her. Fate threw up a Circle to block, and flew straight up behind the cover of the resulting explosion.

ARC SABER, Bardiche droned as Fate slashed the air, sending whirling crescent projectiles down at Homura.

Homura dove out of the way, moving unnaturally fast, but the yellow crescent  _accelerated_  as it got near her and clipped her anyway. Homura went tumbling into the mud with a cry of pain.

Far above, two pink search spells of a slightly different shade hovered.

* * *

A massive silvery white Belkan Triangle turned slowly in the air above, keeping the rain off their heads and casting a soothing illumination over the clearing around the Stargate. Major Carter tinkered with the innards of the dialing device, Unraveller Exalt sitting on top of the pedestal in its bulbous gun form. Hayate stood by patiently while her knights maintained a perimeter.

Madoka winced at what she was seeing through her search spell. "Uh oh. That looked like it hurt."

"Don't worry. Fate is ending the spar," Nanoha assured her. "That was impressive, though. Fate began fighting seriously ten minutes in, and Homura managed to hold her own. She's really learning fast."

Madoka nodded proudly. "I told her she had it in her to be amazing. What was that at the end, though? Fate's spell... it moved strangely."

Off in the distance, Fate helped Homura to her feet and flew them back towards the clearing, picking Homura up with telekinesis.

"I think Homura was using telechronosis to move faster," Nanoha reasoned. "It looked like the Arc Saber sped up in time to match her when it got close to her, and Homura failed to account for that."

Fate flew in over the black treetops, landing with barely a whisper of noise as she set Homura down. Madoka jumped up and threw her arms around Homura.

"That was amazing!" Madoka enthused. "I knew you could do it!"

Homura met Madoka's lips in a kiss and sagged against her bright and wonderful girlfriend with a sigh. "I missed you."

Madoka smiled at her. "You were only gone for half an hour."

"It... felt like longer," Homura murmured.

"Oh," Madoka said sheepishly. "That's right. How long...?"

SUBJECTIVE TIME ELAPSED, THIRTY ONE HOURS AND SIX MINUTES, Skjoldur spoke up.

"I see," Fate said thoughtfully. "You used your Precognition spell to get weeks worth of practice in a single spar. I didn't realize that spell allowed you so many attempts."

Homura lifted her head but she didn't stop clinging to Madoka. "It didn't, before I got Skjoldur. It was the first spell I ever cast, actually, but without a Device I would get really bad headaches if I spent more than a few minutes in the spell. I couldn't make the accelerated feedback effect precise enough on my own, but now that I do have Skjoldur I figured out how to remove that limitation."

Nanoha caught Fate's eyes, and the two of them had a brief telepathic exchange.

"Do you know what you did wrong at the end there?" Nanoha asked.

Homura nodded. "I dilated time around myself to give myself more time to dodge, but it was a soft area of effect, so the closer the attack got to me, the closer it got to sharing my chronal reference frame."

"See? You're  _good_  at this, Homura," Madoka told her fondly.

Homura smiled. "Um, I think I can do better, actually. I've been working on a new spell to augment and focus my telechronosis into a form-fitting boundary by repurposing some of the standard code from the Barrier Jacket. If I'm right, I should be able to form a skin-tight event horizon around my body, and effectively freeze time completely, but those formulas are a bit beyond me."

"Why don't you show Nanoha?" Fate suggested, and Nanoha nodded.

* * *

It was still sinking in, Carter thought. She, personally, could use magic, and as much as it sounded like a contradiction, it was magic that  _made sense_. Sure, she was new at it, and had to use a Circle and stoke her emotions into a fervor to do  _anything_ , but once she did it was like being handed a debug console for  _reality itself_.

Although, the fact that it was possible to edit the very fabric of the universe like a piece of software did raise some unsettling questions about the underlying nature of said universe. It was like Willow had told her back when they first met. The only coherent way to define magic: It was external. Imposed. An outside agent interacting with an otherwise perfectly emergent system.

Carter shook her head, leaving her philosophical musings aside as she fitted the access panel back onto the dialing device and picked up Unraveller Exalt. "I've got the next address."

"Dial it up," Hayate suggested cheerfully as she turned and a screen popped up. "Yagami to the  _Arthra_. Chrono! Major Carter found the next planet."

"Acknowledged. Sydar is tracking," Chrono replied. "We'll see you there."

Carter finished dialing and hit the central red orb, but the Stargate merely flashed its chevrons and whirred in protest. Carter dialed a second time, only to get the same result.

"Busy signal," Carter said with a frown.

"They do that?" Hayata asked, but she shook her head. "Keep trying. Chrono, did you get a vector?"

"Stand by." There was a pause. "Affirmative."

Hayate tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Give us another ten minutes. If we can't get a connection, we'll teleport up and take the long way with you."

"The Ori went to this address," Carter said. "If the Stargate on the other end is currently active, either we've almost caught up, or we  _have_  caught up and we've found their staging ground."

Hayate grimaced. "It might already be too late, in that case."

* * *

Quarters on the  _Arthra_  were cramped, bare metal illuminated by a softly glowing stripe on the walls, but it was private, and the small bunk was soft and comfortable.

Homura and Madoka panted softly, heavy breaths whispering across the dewing of sweat on their bare skin as the two lovers lay entwined in a tangle of naked limbs and mutual satisfaction. Homura rested her head on Madoka's budding bosom and Madoka ran her fingers through Homura's long black hair.

"You ever wonder why people say you're supposed to turn the lights out when you make love?" Madoka wondered whimsically.

The lights in their quarters were, in fact, still on at standard brightness.

"No," Homura murmured, smiling into her chest.

"Maybe it's about bragging rights," Madoka mused. "I can make you feel good even when I can't see what I'm doing!"

Madoka's chest shook against Homura's cheek as the pinkette giggled.

"I don't think that's right," Homura told her, snickering. "Maybe it was because people were paranoid about voyeurs."

"It is harder to hide a search spell in the dark," Madoka conceded. "Hey, Homura?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

Homura's breath caught, and a tremble raced through her body. Then her arms tightened around Madoka and she let out a little choked noise.  _I loved you from the first moment you smiled at me._

"I know," Madoka replied. "I can feel it whenever we touch, burning like a blue star in your heart."

Homura blinked. "I didn't send that."

"Eheh, sorry," Madoka told her sheepishly. "I try not to peek, but when we're touching, I have to actually  _try_  so the prominent stuff tends to slip through."

"It's... it's okay," Homura murmured. "I'm... you can... I can't refuse you anything, Madoka."

"Oh," Madoka said softly. "You mean that. But you're afraid, still. That I'll see something I won't like?"

Homura nodded into Madoka's chest. Madoka went on stroking Homura's hair for a while.

"Homura?"

"Hmm?"

Madoka nudged Homura into meeting her eyes.  _There's something I want to try. Will you let me into your mind completely?_

Homura's eyes widened.  _Um... are you sure?_

Madoka nodded, and Homura gulped.

And then the world faded as Homura felt the immense power of Madoka's mind gently enfold her own. Homura didn't have words for what happened next. To say Madoka violated her mind was like comparing their earlier lovemaking to rape, for all that Homura was utterly helpless before the strength of Madoka's telepathy. The thrill of opening to her and accepting Madoka within her was quite similar.

Madoka's consciousness danced down into the depths of Homura's mind, coaxing up all her fondest memories and proudest moments.  _See? You are a beautiful person._

Homura floated in a sea of emotion, but Madoka was only beginning. Thoughts and feelings swirled, and Homura caught glimpses of herself through Madoka's eyes. Not just memory or images, but feelings. She could feel not just that Madoka loved her, but  _how_  she loved her.

It wasn't exactly the same way Homura felt, but it was just as strong. Just as enduring. Madoka wrapped her in it, like a warm bath made of affection, and that's when Madoka reached down even deeper.

Madoka caressed her darkest desires and most perverse fantasies, enfolding them in a warm glow of acceptance.  _You don't need to be afraid._

Slowly, gently, Homura came back to the present as Madoka withdrew. Homura just stared at her breathlessly. Madoka smiled softly, and their lips met in a sweet massage. Homura didn't even try to stop the tears she felt welling up, clutching Madoka tightly as hot tears trickled onto the flushed skin of her goddess.

* * *

"Attention, we will be entering realspace in five minutes," Chrono's voice announced throughout the ship. "All hands to battle stations."

Hayate blinked blearily as she came awake in her officer suite, at the center of a tangled mass of naked female flesh and variously colored penetrative aids. Signum was likewise woken by the announcement, and the fuchsia-haired knight shared a brief kiss with her before setting about extricating herself.

"Ahhh, yes, definitely my favorite way to wake up," Hayate mused.

Sitting up, Hayate pried a sleepy Vita off her tit and reached over to remove the strap-on Shamal had fallen asleep wearing. She slid off the bed and pulled out the drawer underneath. It was  _the_  drawer. The drawer filled with every naughty toy a shamelessly perverted Japanese schoolgirl could want, short of a tame tentacle monster.

Hayate slotted every toy in its proper place, trusting the spells Shamal had installed to keep everything clean, and climbed back up on the bed to wake up her sleeping knights with kisses.

* * *

Carter only briefly glanced away from the shifting colors of the dimensional sea when Hayate and her knights strode onto the bridge. Nanoha and Fate were already there. Madoka and Homura showed up after another minute.

Eldritch colors peeled apart to reveal stars and nebulae.

"Give me a full Sydar sweep," Chrono ordered tensely.

"Detecting a singularity and an unknown planetary-scale Barrier," Amy reported. "I'm also getting subspace activity and a steady electrical buildup in orbit around the singularity."

"Oh shit," Hayate whispered.

"Power the wards," Chrono ordered. "Bring us into weapons range. Are we dealing with a second New Aln?"

Carter studied the energy readings. "It's possible."

"It is," Hayate said as the orbiting object came into view.

It hung in space, a vast segmented ring, sparkling with electric discharge.

"Can we risk using the arc-en-ciel?" Nanoha asked.

"That could be playing into their hands," Chrono said. "We don't know if the portal has the same properties as their Barrier."

"Then we should hit it with something smaller first," Nanoha said. "Do they know we're here?"

Chrono accessed communications. " _Arthra_  to Headquarters. Chrono Harlaown Priority One. Mission Failure. The Ori have established a beachhead. Recommend all battle-worthy ships make haste to the  _Arthra_ 's coordinates."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Oh Hayate, Willow has an eromorph for you... Hehehe just imagine the expression on Vita's face when that inevitably happens...)
> 
> (So yeah, Madoka's telepathy picks up stuff from people she's touching even when she doesn't intend to. For extra fun, go re-read the last scene in chapter three while keeping that in mind.)


	9. The Glasses Come Off

**The Glasses Come Off**

A dozen TSAB battlecruisers surrounded the inactive supergate, with more on the way. On the bridge of the  _Arthra_ , Chrono sat in conference with the other captains and the Admiral, holographic screens arrayed around him.

"We cannot afford to delay," one captain said. "We must seal the inactive portal  _now_. The Ori may open the connection at any time. The sealing will be impossible with the portal open."

"All that would get us  _is_  a delay," another argued. "The Midverse Ori already know about us. They'll try again, and we won't know where. I say we leave the portal operable and establish a blockade."

"I see no reason for the Ori to leave their beachhead unguarded, save for them simply having no means to guard it," Chrono put in. "They were not expecting word of our existence, and by all accounts the Ori hoard their power. It will take their followers time to build ships and weapons sufficient for an invasion."

"And while they do, you propose we just sit here and wait for them?" a captain demanded. "If we can open the portal from this side, we can strike while they're still scrambling to muster."

"Fly brazenly into the domain of hostile gods?" another scoffed. "There are no checks on the Ori's power, there. We simply do not have enough S-rank mages to have any hope of facing a totalitarian theiarchy in their own territory. We cannot depend on their unwillingness to expend their power to protect us."

"Captains," Lindy said. "You all raise cogent points. However, for better or worse, the decision falls to me."

There was silence as Lindy paused.

"Sealing the portal buys us time, but we won't know where the next one will come. Venturing through when we may not have the strength to hold the portal on the other side would be suicide," Lindy said. "I believe our most viable tactic will be to lay an ambush, here and now."

* * *

The lights were low, and a holographic schematic of an Ori warship hung large in the air. Hayate and her knights. Nanoha and Fate. Madoka and Homura. All of them were pouring over videos of battles from the Anteverse, and reports on the Ori ships.

Homura squeezed Madoka's hand as she watched her parents' ship ripped apart by an enemy attack ship. It hurt to watch it, but not all that much more than just thinking about it. No, something else was on her mind. A possibility she'd never dared to let herself fully consider, before.

Homura looked over at Madoka, drinking in the sight of her, brilliant golden eyes focused intently on the screens in front of her. It was a risk either way, and if Madoka hadn't made love to her mind, Homura would never have had the courage.

Madoka loved her. Madoka was worth it.

Homura shut her eyes. Opened them. She brought Madoka's hand up to her lips and kissed it. Madoka looked over at her.

"I'll be right back," Homura said.

Madoka smiled at her and nodded, and Homura slipped away.

Homura went to their quarters, raised her gloved hand and released Skjoldur. She thought of the New Aln, and of her parents.

"I won't let it end that way," Homura promised. "As long as it takes. I won't stop until I'm sure."

Homura raised Skjoldur. A blacklight Circle unfolded under her feet, and the flat masculine voice of her Device announced, PRECOGNITION.


	10. Every Scar Has A Story

**Every Scar Has A Story**

"Do you trust me?" Homura had asked.

Madoka had thought nothing of Homura excusing herself while they were studying all the intel on the Ori they could get their hands on. She'd come back in just a few moments, as promised, but she'd been... different somehow. Madoka touched her, and her telepathy found a blank wall.

And the girl who was first in her heart had asked, "Do you trust me?"

Madoka didn't know what was going on, or why Homura was suddenly acting strange, but the answer to her question was simple and true. "Yes."

That had been four days ago, and Madoka hadn't had time to dwell on it since.

Everyone slept in shifts, and spent their waking periods training and keeping ready. It was the same on the dozens of other ships that lurked behind the supergate, waiting to spring the ambush. The tense anticipation was thick in the air, and for someone with Madoka's talents, that wasn't just a figure of speech.

Still, she was worried about Homura. The other girl was oddly distant, yet on the occasions where they had a moment to themselves, Homura... well the word that came to mind was 'worship' even if Madoka wasn't nearly as sure of herself as she would have been if she'd been able to pick up on Homura's emotions and the occasional prominent thought.

Madoka  _was_  quite proud of Homura for perfecting her Slider Drive spell, even if Homura, for some strange reason, refused to say when and how she'd solved it. Fate took her dethroning from Fastest-Mage-Alive with good nature.

* * *

On the fifth day since Homura started acting weird, Madoka stirred as Homura shook her awake. Madoka blinked the sleep from her eyes and met Homura's intent gaze.

"Madoka," Homura murmured. "I'm sorry."

Madoka wriggled, feeling Homura's naked body against her own under the covers, and smiled as she brushed a bit of Homura's dark silky hair aside. "For what?"

"That I didn't think of this sooner," Homura said, "and that I always have to wait until now."

"Huh? Whmph."

Homura kissed her, interrupting her. Confused about her cryptic comment, Madoka still sighed in pleasure and returned the kiss eagerly, only to gasp in surprise. The blank wall she'd come to expect when she touched Homura was  _gone_ , and Homura's mind was open to her.

And between her and Homura's mind, there was something else, something she recognized with shock. Madoka had only ever read about this, but here, impossibly, a bundle of  _her own_  memories clung to Homura's mind. How? When had she cut her own memories out and hidden them in Homura? She hadn't. There weren't any gaps in her own mind, so where did the memories in Homura come from?

Homura pushed the memories at her, and Madoka took them, because they  _were_  her memories, somehow. The bundle unraveled, a billion tendrils weaving into place in her brain, and Madoka  _remembered_.

* * *

_Homura, despairing, crying on her chest. Homura, claiming Madoka was just a figment of her Precognition spell, but that Homura couldn't do this alone anymore. Talking it over, Homura trying, failing, watching them die, watching Madoka die, dying herself, reliving the same week for months. Madoka coming up with a way for Homura to carry Madoka with her._

_Cycle after cycle. Repeat after repeat. Months more, reuniting week after week. Never giving up. Learning from each failure. Finally, finally winning. Doing it again and again, until the ambush was like a choreographed dance the two of them knew by heart. Madoka's telepathy. Homura's ability to be anywhere in an instant._

_Together, at last, deciding they were ready. Madoka's figment ripping out all of her memories and hiding them inside Homura for the last time, as Homura prepared to finally end the spell and do it for real._

* * *

Madoka gasped, her eyes blinking open and filling with tears. "Homura. Oh, Homura."

"It'll be worth it," Homura said, her own eyes shining. "We have fifteen hours until the Ori come."

Wordlessly, Madoka pulled her down into a searing kiss. Hands roamed over skin as they moved together. This wasn't the tender fondling of two young girls exploring the promised land. It was a harmony of touch and counter-touch. An act not merely of love, but of familiarity and long practice. A perfection of mutual skill, without a moment of guesswork.

Such was their lovemaking, tonight, and tomorrow, such would be their battle.


	11. God Does Not Own This World

**God Does Not Own This World**

"The supergate is activating. Repeat. The supergate is activating," came the shipwide announcement. "All hands to battle stations."

Immersed in the cosmology section of the TSAB's online encyclopedia, Carter snapped back to reality and shifted mental gears with long practice. The Ori were here. The ambush was set. Carter stood up and grabbed the small blue cube that was her Device.

"Unraveller Exalt, set up," Carter commanded.

It was still amazing to watch it happen. The way the small cube exploded in shards of light that somehow solidified into some kind of programmed pseudo-matter, forming the exotic gauntlet-gun shape around her hand and arm. The light flowed up her arm and covered her body. Her simple borrowed clothes were dimensionally displaced, and the Device wrote her Barrier Jacket into existence.

"Damn, that never gets old," Carter enthused.

She burst out of her assigned quarters and ran, holding in a grin at how fast and easily her Barrier Jacket's physical enhancements let her move. It was no Atanik armband, but then, there were also no negative side effects, and no time limit.

Carter emerged on the bridge just in time to hear a tech announced, "Enemy warship disembarking."

"Arc-en-ciel, charging," Chrono declared tonelessly, staring intently.

"Second warship disembarked!"

"Fleet status," Chrono commanded.

"All ships report targets aquired. Arc-en-ciel volley cycle initiating."

"Third warship disembarked."

The dozens of ships of the TSAB fleet were all lined up directly behind the supergate, each charging their arc-en-ciel in turn. As soon as the supergate shut down, they'd fire in turn through the inactive annulus.

"Fourth warship disembarked."

"Supspace sensor sweeps! The lead ship has seen us! Enemy ships are breaking formation!"

Chrono didn't waste time. "Break out into secondary firing formation!"

Their view of the back of the supergate slid sideways as the  _Arthra_  strafed left, lining up on the their designated target.

"Enemy ships one and three have a firing solution!"

"Arc-en-ciel, firing - gah!" Chrono exclaimed.

Homura Akemi had appeared out of thin air on the back of his command chair and caught his hand before he could hit the firing control. Carter blinked. There'd been nothing. No shimmer of illusion, no crack of displaced air, the girl was just suddenly  _there_ , black hair flowing and bronze shield gleaming.

"Enemy one is firing, all hands brace for impact!"

Chrono twisted around with a snarl, "Akemi! What the - "

Homura shoved his hand into the firing control, and the view went blindingly bright as the arc-en-ciel fired. When the light died down, Homura was gone.

"Status!" Chrono barked.

"Sir! All... all enemy ships destroyed. Our arc-en-ciel blast and the enemy beam weapon collided and interacted. The destruction somehow chained through the other three ships as well."

Chrono blinked.

"Fifth warship disembarked!"

Chrono shook himself. " _Arthra_  to fleet, begin firing rotation."

"Sixth warship disembarked. Sir! Enemy fighters! Four squadrons came through with the sixth warship and immediately scattered."

"All space-rated combat mages are clear to dispatch."

* * *

No one was quite sure what had just happened when the last of the Ori forces were destroyed and the supergate finally shut down. Madoka Kaname and Homura Akemi were the names at the center of the babble of confusion. Some were baffled. Some were angry. Some were awed.

Once the supergate was sealed away, analysts went into a frenzy over the records of the battle. For a while, no one could quite decide if the young couple ought to be arrested or awarded service metals.

Back at headquarters, the girls themselves were extensively debriefed. Their story of living through the battle dozens of times also caused a lot of contention. This time mostly over which branch of the TSAB got to aggressively recruit them.

In the end, the two of them turned down all the offers, except one. Homura took the Contract Mage exam so, no matter where Madoka went, Homura could stay and fight by her side.

* * *

The office was spacious, all clean lines and glossy surfaces in pastel blue, white, and grey, in contrast with the lively clutter occupying Lindy Harlaown's expansive desk. The admiral herself stood as her three favorite S-rank mages strode into her office, and returned the three salutes she received.

"So, what was it you girls wished to see me about?" Lindy asked.

"Admiral, there's a situation we'd like to bring to your attention," Hayate began.

Nanoha nodded seriously. "I received a letter from home just before the mission. According to my family, three weeks ago, Earth was invaded by a race calling themselves the Fae."

Lindy's eyebrows went up in surprise, and she immediately asked for details. "What's the status of the conflict? Is your family alright?"

Nanoha and Hayate exchanged a look, and Hayate said, "Well, that's the thing. According to the Takamachis, the Fae's invasion is kind of ambiguous. There hasn't really been any conflict, in the sense you mean."

"Miyuki-nee recorded some news clips and sent them with her last letter," Nanoha explained. "The Fae have ignored all attempted hostilities, or rather, they have not shown any sign of retaliation for attacks aimed at them. Not even when China tried to hit their ship with a cruise missile!"

"What are these Fae doing, then?" Lindy asked.

In response, Nanoha summoned a holographic screen. It was a clip from a news show, showing a Tokyo street dominated by a flatbed truck. Up on the back of the truck, blocks of soil, stone, and concrete were packed in a row. Atop the excavated blocks sat something that looked as though a gorgeous flower had been wrought from human skin and flesh, closed up in the shape of an egg taller than a man. That clip was replaced by another, showing one of the flower-things opening just off a rice field, revealing a naked man covered by censor pixelation. Another clip, a hospital. An elderly woman that had flatlined several minutes past suddenly vanished in a flash of white light.

"Other than dropping an estimated billion of these objects, and building space elevators that they don't seem to be using, the general consensus is that the Fae are abducting corpses," Nanoha told her. "All the corpses."

"How peculiar," Lindy commented, frowning in thought. "Have these Fae explained themselves in any way?"

"Only in their initial contact message," Hayate said.

Nanoha nodded and pulled up another video clip. It was shaky, obviously recorded on a handheld camera. A murmuring crowd on a Tokyo street, then up, to a window in the sky. The image was of a stylized naturalistic landscape, and a horizon... there was no horizon.

"Is that a topopolis?" Lindy whispered in surprise, mentally adjusting her measure of the Fae's scale of operation drastically upwards.

A woman, wearing nothing, and unusual only in now normal she looked, appeared in the image, and spoke. "Greetings to you, the peoples of Earth. We are the Fae. We have looked upon your world, and seen its horrors. We have looked upon those horrors that are not of your making," a dramatic pause, "and we want to help."

Lindy watched the rest of it with interest, up to the end with the command to, "live on, forever after Earth."

"Encouraging," Lindy opined. "But also somewhat ominous."

"That's what I said," Hayate contributed.

"Since we will be ferrying Major Carter back to Earth anyway," Fate spoke up, "we'd like to retain the  _Arthra_ , go investigate the Fae-Earth first contact situation, and if possible, mediate."

"And if necessary, 'mediate'," Hayate said, making air quotes and shooting a grin at Nanoha.

Nanoha ignored the jibe with great dignity.

"I quite agree that this situation deserves attention," Lindy said. "However, despite our recent victory, the Ori now threaten us on a new front. We're already recalling ships from other missions, and we cannot afford to get involved in another large scale conflict."

Nanoha barely restrained a noise of protest. Lindy held up a hand.

"I will authorize your request," Lindy told them, and all three showed relief. "Just be aware that it is unlikely backup will be readily available, should you and the  _Arthra_  need it."

Nanoha saluted. "Understood, Lindy-san!"

Lindy smiled. "Is that all?"

The three girls nodded.

"You'll leave sometime tomorrow afternoon," Lindy told them. "I'll send you the details. Be safe, you three."

Fate drifted over and received a motherly hug.

* * *

An ice-cream shop and a double date. And it  _was_  a double date, even if one of the four girls was oblivious to the fact.

"Mmm! Try this one, Fate-chan!" the girl in question said eagerly. She held up a small spoonful and fed it to the quietly content girl next to her.

Swallowing the ice-cream from Nanoha's spoon, Fate gave her a surprised smile. "It tastes like the berrycake flavor from the Midori-ya."

Nanoha nodded excitedly. "It does! I wasn't sure, but you think so too, right?"

"Yes," Fate agreed.

Homura, meanwhile, nibbled at a teal-colored sample and made a face. "Salty."

Madoka giggled, noticing a bit of teal clinging to Homura's lip. Impishly, she leaned in, just barely grazing Homura's lips in a kiss before her tongue darted out and licked the ice cream off Homura's face. Homura, blinking in surprise at suddenly being licked, cracked a small smile of amusement.

"it's not all bad," Madoka opined. "Kind of a weird flavor, though."

"So," Nanoha said to them. "You were telling us about what you got up to in all those repeats..."

Madoka nodded. "Well, the first time I manage to send my memories with Homura when she reset, we just kind of... took a vacation. Eheh. Played around. Didn't take anything seriously."

Fate gave them a considering look. "I suppose I hadn't thought of it before, but Homura's spell does effectively create a private world, where there are no consequences for anything she does..." Fate trailed off, glancing at Nanoha with an unreadable expression. "You could trial and error your way through anything. Not just a battle."

Homura glanced away. "I... well, yes."

Madoka chuckled sheepishly. "Eh, funny you should mention that."

Nanoha perked up. "What did you do?"

"Well, there was something we kind of figured out during all those repeats," Madoka shared. "Something very important!"

"Important?" Fate repeated.

"Yeah," Nanoha added. "About what?"

Madoka closed her eyes and smiled as though bracing herself. "Something about the two of you, actually."

Fate went pale.

"Huh? About the two of us?" Nanoha asked blithely.

Madoka took Nanoha's hand and looked her straight in the eye. "Nanoha. You are in love with Fate. Please kiss her already, because every day you wait, she suffers. And once you do that, take her back to the bed you've always shared, and let her make love to you until neither of you can move anymore."

Fate gasped softly to herself, a sound of relief in counterpoint to her growing blush of embarrassment.

"Eh?!" Nanoha exclaimed, spoon frozen halfway to her mouth

But the words had put the idea in her head. Nanoha blinked, head tilting to one side. Madoka giggled, imagining the thought bubble over Nanoha's head as Nanoha actually thought about kissing Fate as a girlfriend. Touching her as a lover. The spoon fell from Nanoha's numb fingers.

"Eh!" Nanoha exclamed, blushing hotly. "But we're both...!"

Madoka just gave her a kind smile as Nanoha realized she had been about to say something mindbogglingly dumb.

"Eh!" Nanoha whipped around and stared at Fate. "Fate-chan? Are we really like that...?"

Cheeks pink and heart thudding heavily in her chest, Fate nodded shyly, her hands twisting in her lap. "I always wanted us to be, but what you wanted is more important to me, Nanoha."

Nanoha gaped, unable to find words. Fate ducked her head, drawing in on herself. Nanoha sat back with a stunned expression on her face.

_Don't worry,_  Madoka sent to Fate, making the other girl's head jerk up.  _She always reacted like this. Just give her a moment._

Sure enough, after a heavy silence, Nanoha furiously shook her head and turned to Fate, a severe expression on her blushing face. "Fate-chan... are you... really  _suffering_  like Madoka said?"

Fate actually squeaked. She opened her mouth to answer but the word stuck in her throat.

Nanoha's expression softened, and her eyes became big and shining. She reached over and cradled Fate's face in her hand. "Fate-chan."

"Sometimes," Fate admitted, "when I'm weak and selfish."

"Fate-chan!" Nanoha exclaimed, taking hold of Fate's face with both her hands. "Don't do that! All this time... You know I'd never want you to suffer in silence. About anything!"

Fate stared at Nanoha in wonder, then her beautiful red eyes dropped in shame. "I know."

Nanoha dragged Fate's gaze back up. "I never... I never even thought to think of it. Nanoha and Fate just  _are_. But all this time I've been ignoring your feelings, and you've  _let_  me. I... I can't stand the thought! I can't... because... I love you, Fate-chan."

Their faces were only inches apart, cheeks tinged pink, eyes brimming with emotion as Nanoha held Fate's face in her hands. And then those inches weren't, and the two girls were kissing.

Well, sort of. Nanoha pressed her lips to Fate's rather awkwardly. It wasn't so much making out as a desperate promise of such things to come once she actually knew how.

Fate got past her shock and melted, moving her lips against Nanoha's. Once she'd calmed down a little, Nanoha learned quickly, trying different things with her lips until it just sort of clicked as her tongue tentatively brushed Fate's. A moan bubbled up from her throat.

Madoka snuggled into Homura's side and brushed away a tear. "That's so beautiful," she sighed happily.

"I know, right," Hayate said.

Wait, Hayate?

"Waah!" Madoka yelped, practically jumping into Homura's lap.

Homura caught her on reflex, but was startled nearly as badly and almost fell off the booth. Nanoha and Fate finally broke their kiss and returned to the world around them.

"Eh?" Nanoha said in confusion. "Hayate-chan, how long have you been here?"

"Long enough," Hayate said cheerfully. "My moe senses were tingling."

"Your what now?" Homura muttered flatly.

"It's about dang time, you two," Hayate told Nanoha and Fate. She smiled sweetly. "Now that you're out of denial at long last, I can finally seduce you into a Hayate sandwich!"

Nanoha and Fate stared at her, open-mouthed.

Hayate giggled demurely. "I'm  _kidding_. Hehe. Your faces..."

Fate rolled her eyes and sighed, as Nanoha sputtered.

"So, mind if we join you?" Hayate asked, gesturing to where Vita was placing an order at the counter.

"Of course, Hayate-chan," Nanoha agreed. "Try that one. Me and Fate thought it tasted familiar..."

And so the group of magical girls enjoyed an evening together over ice cream, having fun and being living proof that badass and adorable go together like... two... going together really well... things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (So, that's it for this tangent. From here, the story continues in Forever After Earth. Or it will, once I figure out where the heck to send Lyn for her Omake. Suggestions?)


End file.
